Rise Of the Heroes Part One: Sentinals
by Wredan
Summary: Sentinal: noun, one who guards. This will be a trilogy. And, while the actual Teen Titans are not in part one, they will be in part two and three, and will play major roles in the story. So please read and review.(Edited of minor errors and spelling issues)


_**Rise of the Heroes**_

_**Part One: Sentinels**_

_Chapter One: The Accident_

"What happened?" Darren exclaimed as he woke up to a pounding headache, feeling weak and disoriented. Opening his eyes, he discovered that he was strapped to a bed, in what appeared to be a hospital room, his pulse displayed on a small screen to his right. "Hey! What's the big deal here?" he cried, fighting the straps.

"Calm down honey," came his mother's voice, and seconds later, she was by Darren's side, letting him up."You're ok now."

"Mom?" he asked, confused and more than a little scared."Where am I? What's going on?"

"You're in the hospital," Darren's father said, entering the room."You and some of your friends. Don't you remember the accident?"

"What accident?" he asked, sitting up with difficulty and discovering the cast on his wrist, and the bandages around his head."Mom, dad, whats going on?"

"You were on your way to school," his dad explained slowly, sitting next to him on the bed."I don't know what caused it, but a truck ran into your bus, one of those big tanker ones-thank god it didn't blow up-and you've been here ever since."

"You've been here a week," Darren's mother stated, holding his uninjured hand. "The doctors said you got poisoned by whatever material that truck was hauling-you've been delirious and feverish for five days. We're so glad you're alright." she added, hugging him gently.

"Who else was hurt?" Darren asked, thinking on his father's words and concerned for his friends...they always rode the same bus to school together everyday.

"The truck driver and two other people caught up in the crash are dead," his father answered grimly."Nancy is here-you two were sitting together on the bus. She was poisoned too, and woke up yesterday."

Nancy was one of Darren's closest friends. With black, shoulder-length hair, light brown eyes and fair skin, she was almost a polar opposite to him. She could be a bit dark and gothic in appearance sometimes, whereas Darren, with his sun-bleached blonde hair, blue eyes, and deep tan, looked more like some surfer dude on a beach. Nancy was also about a full head shorter than Darren, despite being older than him. They had met back in grade school, when he was six and she was seven, and had been almost inseparable ever since.

"Is she ok?" Darren asked, worried.

"She's a bit beat up, but alright," his mother replied."I spoke with her parents after she woke up. She asked the same thing about you," she laughed softly.

"Aaron is here too," Darren's father said."Him and Nancy were poisoned just like you were, but he hasn't woken up yet..." he added slowly."His parents haven't said much to us."

Aaron was another one of Darren's close friends. obsessed with computers, science and science-fiction, Aaron was a bit...odd. Strong and unusually smart, he first met Darren back in seventh grade-they'd been friends ever since. Aaron kept his hair cut very short, so short that it was hard to tell what color it really was aside from not blonde, red or black. He also wore glasses, and his bright green eyes never seemed to miss anything. No practical joke had ever really surprised him, yet he could trick anyone with his almost unnatural stealth. Aaron's favorite joke was to sneak up behind someone, then patiently wait to see how long it took them to notice that he was there.

"Oh," Darren said, thinking that if Aaron's parents weren't talking then he must be hurt bad.

Two days and many doctors visits later, Darren was permitted to leave his room and visit Nancy. She was five rooms away and on the other side of the hall. Darren almost asked for a wheelchair to make that journey, for by now his other injuries had made themselves known-namely, weakened and stiff muscles from being bed-ridden for a week. He only had to stop and rest once, but then Nancy's mother was there and helped him the rest of the way.

"She's been asking for you," she said, opening the door. Nancy's mother could (and had) been mistaken as one of Nancy's sisters, so strong was the mother/daughter resemblance."I'll be outside if you need me," she added, directing the comment at Nancy but including Darren as well.

"Nancy?" Darren asked, once the door had closed. The room was dark, the only light coming from the window, which was covered by a thick curtain.

"Turn the light on Darren," she asked from the bed."I don't know why mom keeps turning it off," she added, sounding annoyed.

"How are you?" he asked, once he'd done as she said and taken a seat in the chair beside her bed.

"Healing," she replied, lifting up and showing off the neon pink cast around her foot, which explained why she hadn't been able to come to see him yet."Don't look at me, I didn't pick the color," she laughed."Your concussion and wrist?"

"Doctor says it'll be fine in a few more days, and my wrist only hurts if I bang into something with this stupid cast," he told her."Do you...remember what happened? The accident?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," she said, sitting up a little."My nurse called it 'selective amnesia'. We got hurt and scared bad, so our brains made us forget it. That's how I understand it, at least."

"Dad brought me the newspaper the other day," Darren stated."I saw a picture of the accident. It looked...bad. The doctors thought reading and seeing it would maybe help me remember something. All it did was make me feel real lucky to be alive."

"What kind of material was the truck hauling?" Nancy asked him."Does the paper say? All the doctors won't answer me when I ask. And mom said they won't talk to her either."

Darren, who had met similar resistance, merely shook his head."Paper only shows the front of the truck and part of our bus. Couldn't be that dangerous-after all, we're here and alive enough to talk about it."

"True," she replied."But why won't they tell us? And why are we still in here? Broken ankles and wrists don't stay in the hospital this long."

"We were exposed to some sort of poisonous gunk," Darren stated."But you're right-them keeping us here this long does seem odd. This thing itches," he commented randomly, picking at his cast.

"You're lucky it's on your wrist," she laughed."I can't really reach mine when it itches me."

"Lucky?" he asked laughingly."You call this 'lucky'? I can't write with both hands like you."

"Its called being ambidextrous," she informed him smartly, then grinned, letting him know she was just teasing him.

Over the next three days, Darren and Nancy kept regaining their strength and visiting one another. Several times, they were whisked away for tests, all sorts of examinations, blood samples, and even a CAT scan once, confirming to Darren that there was more going on here than just their recovery. But, once they were announced 'healthy and healing' for the eleventh time in a row, Nancy and Darren were sent home. Summer break had started while they were in the hospital, so at least they had three months to relax and recover before going back to school.

Of Aaron, who had supposedly been sent home a few days after themselves, Darren and Nancy heard nothing for close to a week. During that week, however, they recovered their lost strength and were soon limited only by their casts and healing bones.

"Darren, phone for you," Darren's mother called from the kitchen. It was Aaron. Several minutes later, after excited 'how are you's' and 'how have you been's,' Aaron got to the point of his call.

"Listen, Darren," he said in a lower tone of voice."Do you think you can make it over to my place?"

"Sure," Darren replied."What's up?"

"I've discovered something that you need to know," he explained."It's very important. Bring Nancy too, if she's up to it."

"Is it...about the crash?" Darren asked, whispering into the phone so his mother wouldn't hear him.

"Yeah," Aaron said."Just get your butts over here as soon as you can, ok."

"Alright," Darren agreed, hanging up the phone.

A short phone call and an even shorter walk later saw Darren and Nancy to Aaron's front door. Unlike their homes, Aaron's was a two-story behemoth, as his father and mother were wealthy businessmen. Aaron's mother happened to be the person who answered the door and told them to go on up to visit, mentioning that her son seemed very involved with something at the moment. Aaron's room was upstairs and on the right, across the hall from his father's study. With a bed, closet and computer table on one side, the rest of the room was like a mini-laboratory, filled with all sorts of science stuff.

"Now then, what's so important Aaron?" Nancy asked him, taking a seat on the edge of the bed while Darren took one of the three chairs. Aaron occupied one of the others, and was seated in front of a bunch of beakers and test-tubes.

"For once my stealth came in handy," he told her, smiling grimly."While I was in the hospital, I took a chance and got into their computer files." Standing with difficulty, Aaron hobbled over to his computer desk and sat down.

"What's wrong with your leg?" Darren asked him.

"Wrenched it in the accident," he explained."Docter told me there was nothin' he could do aside from let it heal on its own. It's not sprained or broken, just sore. Anyhow, that's besides the point. The point is that I found out why we were stuck in there so long." Clicking around on his computer, he said,"Take a look at _this_."

Side by side on the computer screen were two copies of the newspaper picture of the accident. Seemingly identical, they showed the truck and the bus, smashed together like they were made of play-doh. After several minutes of staring, Darren called it quits.

"Ok Aaron, what're you trying to show us?" he asked, leaning back from the screen and giving reply, Aaron hit a button, making one of the pictures enlarge and the other disappear.

"The one that's gone was in the paper," he stated."_It's been tampered with._ This is the composite I was able to get by dissecting the photo using my computer. Direct your attention to the bottom left-hand corner."

"What is _that_?" Nancy asked, pointing out the trail of goo flowing into a storm drain on the picture. A hundred gallons or more must've leaked into the sewers.

"That's the stuff that poisoned us," Darren exclaimed, connecting the dots and seeing what Aaron had wanted them to see."But the paper said it was all cleaned up," he added, confused.

"They _lied_," Aaron stated, almost hissing the word."Now look at the reflection in the trucks rear-view mirror."

"Tell me that's not what I think it is,"Nancy gasped, horrified. The symbol on the side of the truck, the one that the paper said was supposedly 'unidentifiable' was the symbol for toxic waste.

"Oh crud," Darren said."Are we?"

"Yes," Aaron told him."Contaminated. We three got the worst of it, but several dozen others were exposed too. And there's no telling where that slime in the sewer'll go." Shutting down his computer, he turned to face his friends.

"Are we going to die?" Nancy asked, afraid.

"fortunately, no," he said, to everyone's relief."At least, that's what the files said when I got into the hospital computers. But I want you to tell me immediately if anything strange happens to you or you see something odd going on around town. That ooze is dangerous."

"What about the cover-up? Shouldn't we tell people what we know?" Darren suggested, frustrated.

"No," Nancy and Aaron both said at once, though only Aaron kept speaking."If we do that, we'll cause a panic. The best we can do is hope that it's being taken care of by whoever it is that deals with chemical spills."

"So, we're just supposed to sit back and do _nothing_?" he exclaimed, outraged now."Sit and wait?"

"What else _can _we do?" Aaron asked rhetorically."Lets face it, we're _kids_. No-one will listen to us, and even if they do, all it'll cause is trouble. Whoever was hauling that stuff _doesn't _want anyone to know about it, and I have a feeling that they _will _stop us if we try to open our mouths."

"This is like something out of one of those conspiracy movies," Nancy said, shivering."I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes."

For the next few months after that conversation, things returned to normal. Vaco Bay, the small city in which Darren and his friends lived in, went back to its peaceful existence. Nancy, Darren and Aaron healed, their casts came off, school started back up, and summer faded away into fall. The accident and resulting chemical spill were soon forgotten as other events replaced its severity with their own. A boat sank in the Marina, causing harbor patrol many headaches, for example. Outside of town at the airport, a small plane had to make an emergency landing. The lighthouse out on the point, long time landmark of Vaco Bay, was shut down and boarded up.

By the middle of fall, only the people directly involved in the crash remembered the accident. Of those few dozen people, only three, excluding the doctors and nurses at the hospital, knew about the toxic waste in the sewers and the cover-up involved. Nancy, Aaron and Darren did more than just remember, however.

In their casual wanderings throughout the city, the three friends kept an eye out for further signs of contamination. Aaron, on his computer, discovered maps of the sewer system and plotted the course that the ooze was most likely to take. This route became part of Darren, Nancy, and Aaron's daily walk through town. Anything strange was carefully examined, from flowers with slightly unusual colors to a colony of ants that were the largest that Darren had ever seen. Along the trail, people were spied upon too, if they acted odd or suspicious.

This spying led to several surprising and slightly disturbing revelations. Old Mrs. Bachman, for instance, one of the wealthiest people in Vaco Bay, routinely collected things that people had thrown out with the trash. Bobby Thorntan, recent college graduate, had taught his dog to do its business on his neighbors lawn. For Darren, this prank explained why Bobby even owned a dog, when before college he'd hated pets.

Such things were interesting for the group, but bore no connection to the toxic slime. The things that did, however, were worth worrying about. Mutant dandelions were found, three flowers fused atop a single stalk, signifying that the ooze had gotten into the water table and left the sewers. Insects were discovered with ten or even twelve pairs of legs instead of the usual six, and Darren killed a rat that had three tails and two heads. Aaron, the only science-orianted one of the group, dissected it only to find that things weren't what they seemed.

"You don't know how lucky you are to be here right now Darren," he stated, turning away from his lab table to face him."That mutant couldv'e killed you."

"How?" he asked, unbelievingly."It's just a rat."

"A rat with poisonous stingers in its tails," Aaron said, showing Darren the hook-like barbs he'd exposed.

"Creepy," Nancy said, clearly disgusted.

"Not just creepy, it's scary," Darren told her, remembering how the thing had come at him when he cornered it, forcing him to kill it by stomping on it.

"If you think that's scary, then you're gonna love this," Aaron announced, examining the mutant again."Judging from the wear and tear on its teeth, according to this book on rats that you picked up from the library after you killed this thing Darren, this was just a baby."

"How much bigger would it have gotten?" Nancy asked, seeing Aaron's point and not liking it-this 'baby' rat was the size of a full grown one.

"No clue," he answered, sliding the body into a plastic bag."Dog-sized, possibly, if not bigger."

"That's a scary thought," Darren spoke, thinking."Aaron, if this ooze did that to a rat, what's gonna happen to us?"

"Nothing, I hope," he replied, going over to his computer."We just got sprayed with the stuff, but the rat _ate _it. I intend to find out, however."

"How?" Nancy asked."By using your computer?"

"Exactly," Aaron told her."Remember me saying I peeked at the hospitals files? Well, that's not all I did." Tapping away on the keyboard, he brought up a file labelled 'Medic.'

"You _copied _their records?" Darren stated incredulously.

"Not really," Aaron explained."Records change. All I did was create a link between the hospitals system and mine."

"You're a genius, you know that, right?" Darren stated, patting his friend on the back.

"I try," Aaron laughed."Now then, by using the hospitals records, I can compare DNA taken from us before the accident to the samples they took afterwards. Using that data, I can try to make an educated guess as to what will happen to us and anything else that gets exposed to the toxins. Odds are, it won't be very accurate, but it's better than nothing."

_Chapter Two: Secrets Revealed_

"How much longer is that scanning thing of your's going to take Aaron?" Darren asked."When's it gonna be done?"

Three hours had passed since Aaron had started running the comparison between their DNA before and after the got exposed to the toxic waste by the accident. During that time, Darren and Nancy had, in order to avoid boredom, played checkers, tic-tac-toe, hang-man, and chess, argued over whether or not Darren cheated at some of the games, and were currently in the middle of another chess match.

"Soon," Aaron replied, tapping away at his computer."Maybe ten more minutes."

"But you said that an hour ago!" Nancy complained. Returning to the game, she moved a pawn, trying to block some of Darren's pieces.

"Shouldn't have done that," Darren smiled, taking out Nancy's knight with one of his bishops. Looking up, he said,"Nancy's right, Aaron. This is taking forever."

"You try confusing a computer into thinking you're a geneticist and running an analysis on a DNA sample, see how far you get without setting off an alarm," he retorted, never once turning from the screen. After several seconds of stunned silence, Aaron said, "Sorry, Darren. This stuff is frustratingly long and complex. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Hey, don't worry 'bout it dude," Darren told him, smiling a little."Truth be told, I probably deserved that. Are you really out-smarting a computer?"

Turning half-way around in his seat, Aaron caught the look on Darren's face and smiled."Several, actually. But don't look so amazed. People do it all the time."

"Sure," Nancy disagreed."But most of those people aren't _sixteen_, either. Aaron, what you're doing is incredible."

Before he could do anything other than grin and be embarrassed at getting called 'incredible', Aaron's computer beeped at him. On the screen, the words 'Analysis Complete', began flashing in front of everything else. Chess game forgotten, Darren and Nancy joined Aaron at his computer table.

"Don't just sit there, man!" Darren cried."Tell us what we need to know." Aaron complied quickly, and a scroll of letters and numbers began to roll down the screen. Most were plain, but a few were underlined and in bold type.

"What's that?" Nancy asked, indicating the information going down the screen. She couldn't make it out as anything but a bunch of letters and numerals, arranged into three separate columns.

"That's the analysis of our DNA," Aaron stated, staring at the computer, a frown beginning to form on his face.

"And you can _read _this?" Darren said, amazed.

"Only some of it," Aaron answered."The bold type and underlined parts are changes caused by the toxins we were exposed to. This is my DNA," he added, pointing to the first of the three columns."This second one is yours, Nancy, and the last one is Darren's."

"What's wrong with us?" Darren asked, pointing out a bunch of bold type in his own DNA."I can't understand any of this."

"You and me both," Aaron answered, looking at the information on the screen. "The normal stuff I can kinda read, but the changes just don't make any sense." Pointing out one line in particular, he said,"Take this code for example. According to my limited knowledge of genetics and the computers database, this code, when found in lizards and snakes, is responsible for growing scales. In me, I'm baffled-I don't know what it means."

"Can you edit out the normal stuff, just focus on the changes?" Nancy asked him, noting several large patches of underlined and bold codes in her DNA column.

"Gimme a minute," he said, stopping the read-out and beginning to type."I think I can, and it'll make things a lot easier to understand. Good idea Nancy."

This time it was her turn to blush as Aaron typed away on his computer, copying the information onto a back-up file before editing out everything that wasn't underlined or in bold type. After a few minutes, the three, now shorter, columns reappeared, along with some sort of line graph in one corner of the screen.

"That's better," he said, reading through the perhaps fifty changes to their DNA on the screen."Ignore the graph thing for a sec-I gotta sort this out in my head," Aaron added, before Nancy or Darren could say anything."This is some weird stuff."

"Still can't understand any of it," Darren muttered under his breath, but, as he was standing right beside Aaron, he was still heard.

"I might be able to simplify it a bit more," he commented.

"_Words_ would be a nice change," Nancy agreed."Seeing as only one of us can read _this_."

"No need to be sarcastic," Aaron muttered, tapping a few more commands into the computer."And...there it is. Deciphered, decoded, and as simple as I can get it-wow this is strange," he added, reading some of what he'd decoded.

"Aaron, what exactly is all this?" Darren inquired, understanding some of the information, but nowhere near all of it.

"I...I don't know," he stammered."Some of this is biology, but not human. I'm seeing a lot of reptilian codes, like the scale thing. These here," he pointed out in Nancy's column,"Are codes found in bats-I'm almost positive of it. There's even chemistry and physics stuff mixed into our genetics-but this information has to be messed up somehow. According to this code here, Darren, you're absorbing light through your skin and storing it like some kind of solar panel."

"And me?" Nancy asked, peering over his shoulder at the screen.

"Almost the exact opposite," Aaron said."You seem to be reflecting light away and collecting...something else. This is confusing."

"And yourself?" Darren asked his friend, looking at the information on the screen.

"Most of the reptilian stuff is mine," Aaron said, confused."This information _has _to be wrong," he said, more to himself than his friends."That's the only real, logical explanation for it."

"There's an _illogical _explanation, then?" Nancy asked, looking at Aaron and raising an eyebrow.

"We're becoming superheroes," Aaron stated simply.

"Are you crazy?!" Nancy said loudly."We can't be superheroes-we don't have any powers."

"Batman doesn't have any powers," Darren claimed, having actually been to Gotham City and seen the hero, racing across a downtown rooftop."That never stopped him." He was excited about this.

"True,"Aaron stated, having seen news report after news report on robberies and other crimes foiled by the 'Dark Knight' and his side-kick, Robin, though recently, rumors claimed that the teen hero had departed Gotham and started some sort of team out on the west coast. "But according to the data on my computer, we _do_. What else could make a DNA scan spit out such weird information? And the graph kinda confirms it," he added, making the image bigger.

"What does it confirm though?" Darren asked."All I see are three lines with our names on them going up and a bunch of numbers and an 'x' about halfway up each line."

"It shows time and how quickly our powers will grow,"Aaron said, recognizing some of the numbers as measurements of time."The 'x' in the middle of each line is when the computer thinks our powers will start activating. And guess what? That's supposed to be anytime in the next few months."

"This is starting to seem really cool," Darren stated, staring at the 'x' on her line."Just think about it: we could be _real _heroes, just like Batman, the Flash and all the others."

"How?" Nancy asked."We aren't old enough for this. We're still in school for crying out loud." Despite her negative comments, Darren and Aaron could tell she was honestly considering it, just as they were.

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Aaron said."And I'm sure we'll find a way. But for now I'd like to find out what, exactly, we're going to be capable of doing."

"Sounds good to me," Darren said excitedly."But once that's done and we know what our powers will be, we're going to need a few things."

"Oh?" Aaron asked, turning to face him."And what are these 'few things' we're going to need?"

"A base of action, cool costumes, and some awesome hero names," Darren grinned, causing Aaron and Nancy to laugh.

Over the next few weeks, Aaron, Nancy and Darren analyzed their coming powers over and over again, though none of them really learned what they were going to be capable of. Websites about the many superheroes across the globe were consulted almost nonstop, and Darren and Nancy became as skilled as Aaron was at the computer. Several possibilities for a 'Hero HQ,' as Darren called it, were researched and carefully scrutinized. Plans were made by the dozens on how they would conceal their powers when not fighting crime, and colorful costumes were designed on paper, though none of them had any clue as to how they would make such clothing and have it be durable.

Finally, after a month of planning and barely controlled chaos, the group did reach several decisions. After an hour long debate/argument, Aaron, Darren and Nancy settled on the old observatory located just outside of town as their best bet for a good base of actions. Essentially a great dome perched on a cliff side overlooking the sea, the observatory was shut down more than ten years ago due to the city lights inhibiting the telescope. With a few relatively simple modifications, the group decided it would be an ideal headquarters.

As for Darren's concerns regarding school, Aaron had come up with the only reasonable solution to that. And so, the three of them had gathered together in Aaron's room once more. It was quickly becoming their default meeting place, since Darren's room was too small, and Nancy's sister never left them alone when they visited her house.

"We'll get ourselves switched over to homeschooling," he said, having spent a few days pondering the problem."As long as we stay caught up on our learning, no-one can say a thing about it. Of course, in order to do that, we'll have to tell our _parents_," Aaron added, cringing at the mere thought of it.

At that comment, Nancy pretended to faint and Darren actually went pale. Telling their parents. That was a thought none of them had actually considered. Yet, now that Aaron had mentioned it, Darren and Nancy couldn't think of a way to _not _tell them. This was a _big _problem.

"I'd rather face a monster with a dozen eyes and laser vision," Darren stated, much to Nancy and Aaron's amusement.

"Seriously now: How would you're parents react to you telling them about our little secret?" Aaron asked quietly."I know mine'll freak out big time, and not in a good way either."

"Mom'll be cool," Darren said, thinking hard about it."But my dad's gonna be a problem. He's bound to go off like Krakatoa."

"Superman saved my dad's cousin about three years ago," Nancy said."So he should be alright with this. My mom though...I don't know how she's gonna react. My sister will be thrilled, of course, but I probably shouldn't tell her-she can't keep quiet about anything."

"True," Aaron stated, Darren nodding his head in agreement. They had both met Jolene, Nancy's little sister, and knew all about her tendency to gossip."So, as I can't see any real way to avoid this, I only have one question: when should we tell 'em?"

"_After _we get our powers," Nancy claimed."Otherwise our parents'll think we've lost our minds. Adults have to see something with their own eyes in order to believe it."

"Once again, true," Aaron said, glad that he hadn't had to make that decision."Its either prove it or you're off to visit the Vaco Asylum."

"And that's a fate worse than death," Nancy said, shuddering. While no-where near the insanity that was Arkham Asylum up in Gotham City, the Vaco Bay mental institution was still a dreadful place to be, full of freaks and weirdos, or so the rumors stated.

"So all we need to do is wait for our powers to activate," Darren said, changing the subject, to everyone's approval."Aaron, when's that gonna happen?"

"Anytime," he said in way of an answer."There's no real way to know, now that we're so close. It could be tomorrow, it could be weeks from now, but it will be _soon_. You _do _know what to do once you get your powers, don't you?"

"Like I could forget?" Darren asked sarcastically."We've went over that plan a dozen times already."

"Say it," Aaron stated."Now is not the time for games Darren. This is serious."

"Ok, ok, ok," he said, throwing his hands up in defeat."Once our powers start to appear, we're supposed to call each other and then get up to the observatory as quickly as possible."

"And?" Nancy prompted.

"Once there, we _stay _there until we're _sure _that our powers are under control," Darren stated, reciting Aaron's plan almost to the letter.

"Tell me Plan B," Aaron said, arms crossed.

"Call, then isolate ourselves, get away from any people or breakable objects," Darren muttered."Aaron, _we_ _know what to do_."

"Just making sure," he replied."We have to be careful about this, 'cause if we aren't, innocent people are going to get hurt. And there's a good chance that those innocent people will be close friends or family. These powers we're going to be getting are _dangerous_. We can't afford to be reckless with them."

"You think I'm _reckless_!" Darren exclaimed, anger evident in his voice.

Seeing as things seemed to be heading towards another argument, Nancy decided to intervene."It's getting late," she said."We should be heading home." Pulling Darren toward the door, she added,"You know our phone numbers Aaron, so let us know if anything comes up."

"So long as you do the same," he said, unsure as to why they were leaving but seeing them to the door.

"We will," Nancy assured him, leading a bewildered Darren away from the house, only letting go of his arm one Aaron had shut the door.

"What was that about?" he demanded of her, stopping.

"You two were arguing again, that's what that was about," Nancy told him, pointing a finger at his face."I decided to do something about it," she added, crossing her arms.

"But...but we we're just _talking_," Darren stammered, surprised by her sudden ferocity and finding himself backing down from her.

"Arguing," Nancy stated simply."Listen Darren, if this whole plan, this _hero_ stuff, is going to work, we need to learn to work together. Having superpowers won't be all fun and games-and yes, I'm taking Aaron's side in this and not yours-so be quiet and hear me out. Ever since we learned about this, you've been so excited about it that you've blinded yourself to the consequences of being a hero. And there _are _consequences."

"Like what?" he asked meekly, sensing that by being anything other than totally subservient, Nancy would verbally gun him down. Darren also knew that, if she did, his dignity, self-respect, and sense of hearing wouldn't live through it.

"Did you ever stop and realize that people's _lives _will be in _our _hands?" she asked him."And that if we mess up, just _once_, that someone could get hurt or even _killed_? This isn't some kind of game Darren, it's life. And in life, you don't get second chances very often. Think about _that _for consequences, and ask yourself why Aaron's so tense, and why I'm agreeing with him."

"I've been a jerk, haven't I?' Darren asked her, understanding for the first time the many troubles and complexities that came with putting on a suit and calling yourself a hero.

"A big one," Nancy said, taking his hand."But now do you understand what it is we're about to go through with?"

"Yeah," he said softly."Now I do."

Over the next few days, Darren contemplated what Nancy had said to him. During that time, he remained (for him, anyways) unusually quiet and thoughtful. Aaron, who had noticed this sudden change in Darren's behavior, didn't quite know what to think of it. He asked Nancy about it a few times, but when she just shrugged and steered him off the subject, he decided to let sleeping dogs lie and dismissed the matter from his mind.

Besides, he had other things to worry about. Several mysterious disappearances had occurred in and around Vaco Bay over the past few weeks. As a soon-to-be hero, Aaron felt obligated to follow such things; to see if this and other events could be the work of the toxins, or something created by them. Disappearances were very rare in Vaco Bay, and co-incidences were beginning to add up. There was a connection there, Aaron was almost certain of it. Of the group, he had become the unofficial leader and co-ordinator of most everything they were about to do.

Two teenagers and one college freshman had vanished, and the Vaco police force seemed unable to figure out why, how, or most importantly, who or what was causing the disappearances. Neither of the teens had cause to run away from home, and the young man, whose car was found parked at his workplace, had a criminal record that was almost non-existant. He was placed with the teens as a victim, rather than a chief suspect by the police. A further mystery was that, of the three missing persons, no discernible signs of struggle had been found, despite the fact that the young man had some experience in martial arts and was perfectly capable of defending himself. They had just...vanished.

_Chapter Three: Powers and Problems_

It happened on a friday morning, as Nancy was getting ready for school. While brushing her teeth, she'd looked up at the bathroom mirror, and was so shocked that her toothbrush fell out of her mouth and into the sink. Her eyes had turned _black_. Iris and pupil were indistinguishable from one another. Her powers had come.

Not even stopping to wash the toothpaste out of her mouth, Nancy raced to her room, grabbed her cell phone and dialed Aaron's number as she quickly threw on some clothes.

"Yeah," came Aaron's sleepy answer after the phone had rang four times. He and Darren had cell phones identical to Nancy's, purchased way back when they had first discovered that they were going to get powers. Unlike Nancy and Darren though, Aaron wasn't a morning person, and was still sound asleep when she had called.

"It's happening!" she said quickly.

"Now!?" he exclaimed, instantly awake and on his feet, knowing full well what Nancy was referring to.

"Call Darren," she told him, peeking out her door then sneaking out of the house once the coast was clear-her sister was still asleep and her parents were in the kitchen. "I'm heading for the observatory now," she added, once she was outside and on her way.

"Call back as soon as you get there, we'll probably already be on our way," Aaron advised, ending the call.

Throwing on clothes, Aaron was about to call Darren when he noticed that his own transformation was beginning. Aaron's once neatly trimmed fingernails had become sharp and pointed, and his skin was beginning to itch and dry out. He had expected something like this, since most of the reptilian characteristics had belonged to him, but had thought that it would take hours to occur, not minutes.

"Too _fast_," he muttered, abandoning his plan of simply walking up to the observatory. He would have to _run_, and NOW.

Nancy called him back while he was still on the same block that his house was on. "Aaron, Darren just called me, so just forget calling him and get moving-the changes are happening faster than you said they would!"

"I noticed and I'm on my way," he shouted into the phone, clutched precariously in his claws. He'd broken off one of the buttons just answering the darn thing."His powers turn on yet?" he asked, cutting through a yard and hopping over a bike. Skidding to a stop, he turned and looked back. Wait just a second, his mind told him. Moments later, he'd doubled his speed by 'borrowing' the bike.

"Yeah," Nancy said over the phone, obviously running."He said something about a toaster too, but I wasn't really paying attention-I got my own problems."

"Me too," Aaron replied, pedaling as fast as the bike would let him. Snake-like scales, surprisingly shiny for their bronze color, had started sprouting from his skin. His hands and face were almost completely covered, and people were giving him odd looks as he raced by.

In another part of Vaco Bay, Nancy was receiving similar looks as she ran towards the observatory. Her ears had become slightly pointed, and her eyes were entirely black-not just the iris and pupil. There was also something happening to her back, but Nancy dared not stop to find out what it was. To her, it felt like _something_ was _growing_ back there, right below her shoulder blades, making it seem that she had a backpack of some sort stuffed under her shirt. It didn't hurt exactly, but it wasn't pleasant either, and the weight of the misshapen bulge was beginning to affect her running.

By the time Nancy had reached the road leading up to the observatory, a winding path that cut through a stretch of woods, the changes taking place on her spine had forced her to slow to a fast walk. Darren had called her again, but before he could say anything, an odd bubbling noise had come over the phone, and the call had been lost. That's not a good sign, Nancy thought to herself as she walked, pocketing her phone, only to have it ring again a few minutes later.

"Nancy, have you heard from Darren?" Aaron asked once she'd answered. "Because I can't reach his cell-it's like he turned it off or something."

"I'm guessing it's 'something,'" Nancy replied."He called a few minutes ago, but his phone died before he could say anything. Where are you?"

"Coming up behind you, so don't be scared," he stated.

"Why would I be scared?" she asked, stopping and turning around to look for him.

"Because," he said over the phone."By now, you've noticed that things are different from what we thought they'd be. Please don't scream," he said as he rode into view.

Despite Aaron's warning, Nancy almost did scream. Riding towards her was what appeared to be a copper-skinned monster on a bike. With a snakes face and sickly yellow eyes, the beast had a familiar-looking phone held in one of its clawed hands. This 'thing' was Aaron, and he seemed equally unsettled by her dark eyes, pointy ears, and the odd shape in the middle of her back.

Slowing to a stop in front of her, Aaron held out his phone and asked,"Would you turn it off for me, please? I almost broke it dialing your number." It was true-his claws had left deep scratches all over the phone's surface, and a button was missing, too.

"That's unexpected," she said as she took the phone, pointing out the long, muscular tail that was coiled around one of Aaron's legs.

"Yeah," he agreed."And it makes riding a bike a real pain in the-what's wrong with your back?" Aaron asked mid-sentance, as Nancy's 'lump' twitched without warning.

"I don't know," she told him."And to tell the truth, I'm scared to find out."

"Does it hurt?" he asked, hopping off the bike, his tail uncoiling to reveal that it was nearly as long as Aaron was tall, if not longer.

"No," she answered, thinking about it for a moment."No, but if I don't do something about it, I'm going to be walking around topless."

"Can't have that," Aaron answered, though the look in his serpents eyes betrayed what he really thought about that."So, what are you going to do?"

"Well, first off, I'm going to have you turn around and close your eyes," Nancy said, giving him a mean look. Aaron wasn't acting right-he never said things like that to her before, and it worried her a bit. Was this part of the transformation too? A change in attitude?"Then I'm going to find out what's wrong with my back." Several minutes later, in her attempt to answer her questions, Nancy encountered a problem. Her shirt, stretched tight by the lump, wouldn't come off.

"Problem?" Aaron asked, after listening to her struggle for a bit.

"I can't get my shirt off," she told him without really thinking. Realizing what she'd said, Nancy felt her whole face go red in embarassment."I really don't want to say this, but Aaron, I need your help."

"What do you need?" he asked, eyes shut and still obediently facing the other direction.

"Turn around and I'll tell you," she said, her face still red as he turned to face her. "I need to borrow those," she told him, gesturing at Aaron's hands, or, more precisely, his taloned fingertips.

"Why? What for?" he asked, seemingly confused but willing to help.

"I need you to cut open the back of my shirt and help me get whatever's in there to come out without ripping my shirt completely off," she told him, turning her back to him and moving her hair out of the way.

"I'm not sure if I should try," Aaron said slowly, his tail twitching in agitation as he looked at his claws. There was no doubt that they were sharp enough to do the job."I could hurt you," he added nervously.

"Just try," she said, making the lump move slightly."I think just cut through the neckline on my shirt and open it to about the middle of my back," she added.

"I don't think you want me to do this," he said, nevertheless stepping up behind her.

"I trust you."Nancy said, surprising him.

"You shouldn't," he whispered dangerously in her ear, raising his clawed hands to strike and baring his snakelike teeth.

"What!?" Nancy cried, whirling to face him. Screaming at the sight of his teeth and claws, she started to turn and run, only to be tripped by Aaron's tail."Aaron stop!"

"I'm not 'Aaron,'" the thing snarled as Nancy sat up and quickly scooted backwards, trying to escape."You may call me Mimic, though you won't live beyond today. That, I promise you."

"Hey! Ugly!" A voice cried out from behind the creature, causing it to turn."Take _this_!" the voice-Darren's voice, Nancy realized-shouted, as something extremely bright and hot blasted the thing called Mimic.

"Move Nancy!" Aaron, the real one, ordered, helping her to her feet and off the road. Unlike Mimic however, his eyes were golden and his scales were a deep bronze color instead of sickly yellow and copper.

Screaming in rage and pain, the creature retreated into the woods on the other side of the road. Then it was gone.

"Come back, you coward!" Darren yelled, throwing more blinding bolts of energy from his hands into the treeline. The toxins had altered his appearance, too. His eyes were _glowing_ white, and his hair stood on end like some anime-style cartoon character. It was a different color as well now, near white and almost appearing to glow itself.

He was _furious_, an emotion Nancy had only ever seen one other time in all the years she'd known Darren. Back then was the death of his grandfather that set him off. Darren's grandfather had been hit and killed by a drunk driver, and the judge hadn't had enough evidence to convict the man that did it. She could _feel _the anger radiating off of him that day, just like she could feel it now. Only this time, Nancy didn't know what had set Darren off.

"We were ambushed at the edge of the woods," Aaron explained, as Darren continued to rant and rage in front of them, though he'd stopped hurling energy bolts into the trees. His eyes had stopped glowing as well, but, in a mood like that, it was best to let Darren vent."That thing, Mimic. It took us out, tied us to a tree and stole our phones. But before it left, it said it was going after you."

"What _is _it?" Nancy asked, as Darren kept hurling insults at the woods, though he wasn't shouting anymore.

"Mimic is one of the people affected by the ooze," Aaron told her."Trouble is, which one? He can look like anyone or anything, so until we catch him, we won't be sure. He's also responsible for those unexplained disappearances, far as I can tell."

"No signs of struggle," Nancy said, quoting one of the police reports and understanding now."He made himself look like their friends then...that creep!"

"Mimic was going to come back and show us a picture of your face when you thought you'd been betrayed," he said quietly."Then he was going to kill us, too. That's what got Darren in such a frenzy."

It took nearly ten minutes before Darren got control over himself again. Verbally exhausted, all he could do was nod when asked if they should continue to the observatory. What he agreed to was a thirty minute uphill hike to the cliffs on the northern edge of Vaco Bay. Mostly wild and undeveloped, the cliffs were the preferred get-away for nature enthusiasts, bird watchers, and amateur star-gazers, though the professional astronomers had moved on once the observatory had closed down.

"Cool power," Nancy stated to Darren, halfway through their hike, trying to start up a conversation.

"No," he said, then smiled."It's hot. White hot," he laughed, before asking,"What's going on with your back?"

"Don't know," she told him."I was about to find out when Mimic turned on me. I'm glad you guys showed up when you did."

"So were we," Aaron said, lashing his tail in anger at what had almost happened. "Want me to take a look?" he asked cautiously.

"Actually," Nancy began, blushing at what she was about to ask."If you could use those claws and open up the back of my shirt, I'd really appreciate it. Having whatever-it-is back there all stuffed up inside my shirt is getting really uncomfortable." Being a girl and having to ask for a guys help with a situation like this is very weird and embarrassing, Nancy thought to herself.

"Do you trust me?" Aaron asked, looking at his sharp claws, clearly nervous.

"Now that I know it's you," she said, as Aaron stepped around her."Now, just cut through the neck of my shirt and well, rip it enough that whatever's in there can come out," Nancy added, face red again. One rip too much and she would be topless in front of her two best friends. But Aaron didn't fail her, and a few seconds later, Nancy's lump was revealed to be-

"Wings!" Darren cried."Nancy, you've got wings!"

"Really?" she asked, moving the unfamiliar appendages to where she could see them."I _do _have wings!" she exclaimed, flapping them a few times, excited.

Matching the color of her hair and eyes, the wings were huge, easily the size of a bed sheet when fully extended. Shaped rather like the wings of a bat, but somehow more elegant, Nancy's wings had four 'fingers' and a short, clawed 'thumb'. Excited as she was, nevertheless Nancy decided against trying to fly, just yet. By draping them over her shoulders like a cloak and hooking her two wing-thumbs together in front of her, Nancy was able to walk without dragging her wings along the ground or stepping on them.

"You know," Darren stated, looking at Nancy but talking to Aaron," If you're more than ten feet away, you can't tell that that's not one of those jacket things people used to wear back in the middle ages."

"They aren't 'jacket things'," Aaron laughed."They're called cloaks, and you'd know that if you would pay better attention in history class. But you're right: from a distance, you can't really tell what they are."

"Do you really think I can _fly_?" Nancy asked."'Cause these wings feel a bit heavy."

"I'm not sure," Darren replied."But they seem big enough to get you off the ground."

"We won't know 'til you try," Aaron said."But I know an old equation on aviation that should help us figure it out before you go jumping off any tall objects," he laughed. "But I will have to ask you some personal stuff."

"Like what?" Nancy asked. Trailing behind them a bit, Darren smirked and shook his head.

"Like how much you weigh," Aaron said, cringing a little.

"Oh," Nancy said."_That _kind of personal stuff." Stepping closer, she leaned over and whispered it in his ear.

"Alright," Aaron stated, putting that number into his equation."Wingspan?" he asked next.

"I don't know," Nancy said, unfurling her wings so she could guess."Eight feet maybe?"

"I think closer to ten,"Darren said, speaking up and earning a look from his friends."Hey, judging distances and stuff is important when I'm on my skateboard. I have to know if I can make a jump before I actually try it. Crashes hurt," he laughed.

"True," Aaron said, doing the mental math with Darren's estimate as part of the equation."You should be able to at least glide with what you told me, Nancy. But, the big question is this: How much do you weigh_ now_? These changes are a bit more extreme than we thought they'd be, but they are still similar to what we were expecting, which means that your bones might be hollow like other flying creatures. Bird skeletons can be as low as one quarter of their body weight, making them considerably lighter than they look."

"So, how do we test that?" Nancy laughed, nevertheless following his logic."I don't think any of us ended up with X-ray vision," she added sarcastically.

"Simple," Aaron said."Tell me this; before today Nancy, how high could you jump?"

"Three feet, maybe," she said."Why?"

"Jump now please," Aaron asked, seeing her figure things out and smile.

"Give me a count of three," she said, getting ready.

"Ok," Darren replied, as the three of them stopped for a moment to test this out. "One...two...three!"

On 'three', Nancy leaped. But it wasn't a normal, human leap. She flew nearly ten feet into the air like it was nothing. Unsure about how rough the landing would be, Nancy spread her wings...and drifted to the ground like a falling leaf. The short glide had been near-effortless to her, and Nancy felt that if she wanted, a single flap of her wings would have shot her skywards again.

"Incredible," Darren said, awed.

"That answers that," Aaron stated matter-of-factly."She can fly alright."

"I'm loving these wings," Nancy grinned, draping them over her shoulders again. "Now lets get up to our new base of actions, the old observatory!" In good spirits now, the trio stated racing each other the rest of the way.

"Hey! No fair," Darren cried, having been caught off guard and left behind."You got a head start!" he yelled, struggling to catch up.

"Too bad, so sad," Nancy teased over her shoulder, her wings trailing behind her like a living cape as she ran.

"Whining won't help ya win," Aaron laughed taking the lead.

And so it came to pass that Darren lost a race to two people he'd always beaten before. Frustrated as they neared the observatory and slowed to a walk, he clenched his fists, arms at his side, and suddenly discovered that his powers could do more than just blast things. Hands glowing with the same light that had melted his toaster this morning, Darren was twelve feet in the air before he'd realized he had left the ground.

"Hey!" he cried out in surprise, still rising."Aaron, Nancy, I'm _flying_!" Amazed, Aaron and Nancy watched as Darren continue to rise skyward.

"Wow," Aaron said, craning his neck back to watch his friend.

"How are you doing that?" Nancy asked, as Darren shakily slowed to a stop, hovering about twenty feet above their heads.

"I, I don't know," Darren admitted, laughing."All I did was clinch my fists 'cause I was mad you guys beat me in our race, then _zoom_! Up I go."

"Can you get down?" Aaron asked, excited that Darren could fly but nervous that he might've gotten himself 'stuck' up there. He could also lose control and fall.

"I'd better," Darren agreed, concentrating and slowly learning how to move around in the air before sinking back to earth."Or else someone'll spot me. This is so cool!" he added, grinning at his friends.

_Chapter Four: Finding Home_

"I'd forgotten about the fence," Nancy said as they approached the observatory.

Chain link and about ten feet tall, the fence encircled the building, its parking lot, and the garden that had made the place look pretty, once upon a time. Ten years had aged that garden, and by now, it was a weedy jungle that surrounded the entire building, even swallowing up the sidewalk and parts of the parking area. Last time they had been here, Darren Nancy and Aaron had used bolt cutters to cut a small hole in the fence, but now they had an issue.

"My wings will get caught and torn up if I try to fit through there," Nancy stated, nervously looking at the ragged hole in the fence. "And I can't jump over it due to the bushes." It was true-this part of the fence ran alongside what was once the garden, and the plants had completely taken over. It would be a rough and painful landing if she jumped over it.

"Not a problem," Darren smiled, leading them around to the main gate. Taking the heavy padlock in his hands, the same padlock that their bolt cutters had failed to break, Darren focused his power, and the lock melted like ice tossed into boiling water.

"Impressive," Aaron stated as his friend stripped the chains off the gate and struggled to open it, having to push hard due to the rust and lack of care that the gate had received in the past ten years.

"I think the first thing to do is tame this 'forest'," Darren stated, finally managing to get the gate most of the way open and looking at the overgrown bushes ahead of them.

"Good idea," Aaron told him, being sarcastic."But _how_, I ask, are we going to do that?"

"Perhaps we should check out the observatory first," Darren stated sheepishly, looking around at all the bushes and trees, many of which were more than ten feet tall. "Gardening can wait."

"Just clear us a path for now, Darren," Nancy said, keeping her wings folded tightly against her. Many of the once-decorative plants in here had thorns-a real threat to her wings. While the road and parking area inside the gate were relatively clear of vegetation, the sidewalk leading up to the building itself was barely visible.

"Alright. One path coming right up," he agreed, using the same method he had used on the lock to start clearing the way. Branches and vines were reduced to cinders with a touch as Darren worked his way forwards.

"Meet Darren, worlds fastest weed-whacker," Aaron joked, at the same time showing that he had enough flexibility in his snake-like face to smile.

"Shut up," Darren snapped, half mad and half amused at what Aaron said."Never thought I'd be using my powers for such a mundane purpose," he muttered under his breath.

"Just don't set the whole place on fire," Nancy laughed, stepping onto the path Darren was clearing. He'd made five feet of walkway, but they were nearly thirty feet from the building.

"This is taking too long," Darren complained a few minutes later. The bushes had gotten thicker fast, and he was barely making any progress."I'm gonna try something," he stated, striking the pose he'd used to fly and rising up above the garden."Back up guys, and shut your eyes-I don't know how bright this is going to be."

"Darren be careful," Nancy warned, though both she and Aaron obeyed Darren's directions. Shutting their eyes, they nevertheless _saw_ a bright flash of light that lasted several seconds, smelled smoke, and felt the air grow warm in front of them.

"Alright, guys, you can open your eyes now," Darren stated, landing with a muffled thump. This was the first time he'd used his powers like this, forming a beam of energy instead of throwing it around like he did when he rescued Nancy from Mimic, and he felt weird now, almost like he was coming down with something.

"Whoa," Aaron stated, mouth hanging open in awe, revealing serrated, shark-like teeth lining his jaws. The human Aaron was completely gone-nothing had been left unchanged by his transformation.

Darren had made a path about five feet wide, leading all the way up to the observatory doors. Little remained of the plants that had been blocking their way, except for a fine black ash floating on the wind. And the ground itself had been affected as well. The concrete sidewalk and the dirt around it had been _fused _by Darren's powers, melted into a glass-like substance that glowed red as it slowly cooled.

"Whoa indeed," Darren claimed, feeling dizzy and wobbling slightly."I think I strained myself-I feel weird," he added, as Aaron and Nancy took hold of his arms and helped him sit down.

"What's wrong with him?" Nancy asked, noticing that Darren's appearance had returned to the way he looked before he got his powers.

"Darren draws his powers from the sun," Aaron explained."By storing its energy in his skin like a solar panel. I'm guessing here, but I think that, like a solar panel or battery, Darren can only hold a certain amount of power, power directly linked to how much time he spends in the sun. The longer he spends working his tan, the stronger he gets."

"So, you're saying that, since I've only been absorbing power for a few hours, I've used up all the energy I collected this morning?" Darren asked, puzzled.

"In a sense," Aaron replied, thinking about it."According to the research I've done, you should be back on your feet soon, and have your powers back in no time. And, after you've gotten about a weeks worth of sun, you should be carrying a full charge. Once that happens, it should be a lot harder for you to burn off all that energy."

"Good to know," Darren stated."I can't wait to see what my powers are like once I'm fully charged up," he added, grinning.

"Alright," Nancy said, after Darren had gotten his powers back and said he was feeling better."We better start checking out our new home."

"You stay out here Darren, and get your strength back," Aaron said, stopping him from getting up.

"But-" Darren protested, only to have Nancy interrupt.

"No buts," she told him sternly."Think of it as guard duty-keep an eye out for that Mimic guy."

"Alright," he agreed, smiling wickedly, hoping that he might get another chance to blast that creep. Leaving him behind, Aaron and Nancy headed up to the observatory. Darren's glass-like path had cooled quickly, and was safe enough to walk on, though it was still hot beneath their shoes.

Up close, the thirty foot tall concrete and metal dome of the observatory was a marvel to behold. Though its doors and windows had been boarded up, and its great 'eye' had been removed, it was still an impressive structure, despite its age. The two heavy doors that would have revealed the telescope were closed tight, their gears probably rusted and unable to move at all. Perched less than fifty feet from the cliffs edge, the observatory faced the sea, but, in its prime, it could have spun to peer in almost any direction.

"This is crazy," Aaron commented, examining the rusted, weather-battered hulk. "We can't use this place-it's falling apart."

"Yeah," Nancy agreed, now that she'd seen the building up close."If we tried to fix this place up, we'd be working for _months_."

"With that Mimic jerk running around, we need a secure base, ready to use, no repairs needed," Darren replied, having overheard them upon walking over to investigate the building himself."Any buildings 'round here match that description, Aaron?"

Darren was upset that they had walked all the way up here for nothing, but knew it wasn't anyone's fault. The observatory had seemed sound when they'd inspected it a few weeks ago, but, then again, that time it had been getting dark when they'd looked it over. Shadows must have hidden some of the more serious problems with the structure.

"There is that lighthouse out on the Point," Aaron suggested, remembering that it had recently been shut down.

The Point was a narrow, rocky outcropping of land which lay just south of the Vaco Bay Marina on the other side of town. Jutting about a half mile out into the sea, the Point's boulder-strewn shoreline was a real danger to ships, hence the lighthouse. That is, it _had _been a danger. Now, with most boats equipped with modern navigation devices, such as GPS units and similar things, only idiots wound up colliding with one of the Point's monster-sized rocks. Its purpose gone, the lighthouse had been money-starved into submission, and had finally gone under and shut down about a month ago.

"But that's all the way on the other side of town," Nancy complained.

"We've walked that far before," Darren stated, misunderstanding her, though Aaron didn't.

"And I guess you expect us to waltz all the way over there looking like _this_," he proclaimed, pointing at himself."You, maybe, but Nancy and I can't."

"_Oh_," Darren saw, imagining how people would react to that."Can't you change back?" he asked, looking his friends, and their situation, in a whole new light.

"Tried on the way up here," Aaron stated flatly."Just didn't say anything."

"And if he can't, odds are I can't either," Nancy added, her wings ruffling as she shrugged."I'm afraid _this_ is us, from now on."

"It's _permanent_," Darren cried, seeing Aaron's scales and Nancy's wings as if for the first time."You mean, we're stuck this way _forever_?"

"Why are you complaining?" Aaron asked disgustedly."You kept most of_ your _good looks."

"But, but," Darren sputtered, unable to understand how Nancy and Aaron were taking this so well. To _never _be normal again-that was a thought that hadn't occurred to him before.

"Darren, we knew there was no going back," Nancy stated, taking his hand."And we told you that too, back when we started planning to be heroes. Having these powers isn't going to be easy for us," she added, letting go of his hand.

"I, I guess I just never thought that this was _forever_ forever," he told her, a bit shaken.

"You ok?" Aaron asked, sensing his friends distress.

"Yeah," Darren answered, wandering over to the cliffs edge and staring out at the ocean, away from Vaco Bay. "Yeah, I'm ok. Now, about that lighthouse Aaron?"

"What about it?" he inquired, curious about Darren's change of subject."It's certainly in better shape than this place-it only shut down a month ago."

"Closer to town too," Darren added, turning to face his friends, a smile on his face. "How hard would it be to turn it into our base?"

"Not hard," Aaron replied."Getting the power back on will be the tricky part, but once that's done, we can live there and redecorate as we go."

"What's it like inside a lighthouse?" Nancy asked."I've never been in one."

"I have,"Aaron stated."But it was an old one, not like the lighthouse across town." Vaco Bay had renovated their lighthouse about five years ago, updating all the stuff inside to be more modern and efficient.

"You have?" Darren asked, having learned something new about his friend. "What's it like?"

"Basically, a lighthouse is like a tower," Aaron explained, trying to describe the place he'd been to."Inside, it's hollow, containing a generator or some other power source at the bottom and the light up top. Our lighthouse is a bit different. Back whenever it was first built, the guy that ran it actually lived there, so it clearly has several rooms inside. From what I remember, our lighthouse has at least three floors, not including the generator room or the glass top that holds the light."

"Sounds ok so far," Nancy commented.

"If we can get to my place without being seen or causing a panic," Aaron stated. "Or running into any of our parents, I can download the floor plan for the whole thing."

"Why do that when we can just go see for ourselves?" Darren stated, unimpressed with Aaron's idea.

"Because it'd be easier to get to my place first instead of clear across town," Aaron said, lashing his tail in agitation.

"I have an idea," Nancy suggested, though both of the boys ignored her.

"I think stopping at your place along the way only increases our chances of being spotted," Darren argued, disagreeing with Aaron.

"I've got an idea," Nancy said again, to no avail.

"And I think a race across Vaco Bay without a stop will tire us too much to get anything done at the lighthouse," Aaron snarled back, his recent transformation making that expression all the more menacing.

"Guys," Nancy muttered, giving up and walking away from them as they continued to bicker.

Deciding to test her idea, with or without Darren and Aaron's approval, Nancy unfurled her wings, and, after glaring at her friends, began to flap them. Once, twice, three times she flapped, and on the third downstroke, her feet left the ground. By the fifth flap of her wings, she was ten feet in the air, where she was assisted by a stiff ocean breeze, which aided her in ascending up and over the observatory. Flight wasn't really that hard, Nancy discovered. It was about as demanding as walking fast or jogging.

Whirling and playing with the wind currents, swooping and diving and learning her wings, Nancy almost forgot about Darren and Aaron. In the middle of climbing again, Nancy realized that, by positioning her arms and legs in a certain way, it reduced a lot of the tiring drag she was having to cope with. In only a few minutes, flying became the most wonderful thing in the world to Nancy, and she knew that, if she had the chance to go back and avoid the accident that changed her life, she wouldn't do it.

"Nancy, come down from there!" Darren's voice called up to her.

"You're going to get yourself killed!" Aaron cried out, as she performed a thrilling loop in mid-air. It had taken the boys five minutes to notice what Nancy was up to.

"Well, now that I have your attention," she said after gliding to a safe and graceful landing in front of them,"I have an idea."

"Ok," Darren said."What is it?" Despite being able to fly himself, he was still impressed by Nancy's flight.

"The shortest distance between two points is a straight line," Nancy stated, for a moment sounding like Aaron when he gave an explanation for something.

"True," Aaron acknowledged."But what's that got to do with our problems?"

"Look for yourselves," she said, leading the two boys to the edge of the cliff that faced towards town.

Below the trio, Vaco Bay lay spread out, map-like for them to see. Following the curve of the bay for which it was named, the city stood tallest at its center, about a mile inland. There, the skyscrapers soared, dominating the landscape, but once away from that area, the buildings shrank, replaced by stores and homes. At the southern end of Vaco Bay lay the Marina, and there, all alone on the Point, sat the lighthouse. It was surprisingly close by-going through town would nearly double the distance the three friends had to travel.

"Nancy, we _can't_," Aaron stated, shocked by the idea she was proposing.

"We can," she replied, determined."Cutting across the bay will save us a lot of trouble."

"Certainly," Aaron told her."But there's just one problem-_I can't fly_. And I'm not swimmin'."

"Who said you had to?" Darren retorted, ambition written on his face. He _loved _a good challenge, and this idea was one that he just couldn't pass up.

"You've been overruled, Aaron," Nancy smiled, to his horror. To Darren, she said, "Let's go for it!"

"This is _crazy_," Aaron stated, even as he willingly climbed onto Darren's back-that being the most practical place for him to hold onto while Darren was flying. Almost of its own free will, Aaron's tail wrapped securely around one of Darren's legs, ensuring that, if he did slip off, he wouldn't fall very far.

"Na," Darren and Nancy both disagreed."This, is cool." Then Darren stepped off the edge of the cliff.

In the three seconds it took for Darren to stop falling, Aaron actually saw bits and pieces of his life flash before his eyes. Any longer in free fall and he'd of started 'screaming like a sissy girl,' as Darren would've put it. But he didn't, and was very, very thankful for that small miracle. Nancy, who had taken a graceful dive over the cliff that was now above them, would have never let Aaron live it down, had he panicked.

Compared to the take-off, the crossing of the bay and their eventual landing was uneventful. No one saw them, save for a small flock of seagulls, and nothing bad had happened. In cutting across the bay, they had shaved about an hour off the time it would have taken them to get to the lighthouse if they had travelled on foot.

"Well, we certainly made good time," Aaron laughed, still a bit shaky from the flight. Darren had set them down about twenty feet away from their potential new home. "But lets not do that again."

"Is this impressive or what?" Nancy called down to them, perched atop the eighty foot tower."I can see half the city from up here."

"We need to get inside without blasting things apart," Darren said to himself, looking at the boarded up and locked door."Can you get in from up there Nancy?" he asked, shouting so she could hear him.

"I can try," she replied, dropping down to the glass-walled room that housed the light of the lighthouse.

While Nancy was doing that, Darren and Aaron torched and smashed away the boards blocking the door. It was during this constructive destruction that Aaron lost his shoes. Or rather, shredded them, for like his fingers, Aaron's toes had sprouted claws. In the process of kicking a particularly stubborn board, those talons burst through his shoes like they were tissue paper. Unlike his hands however, Aaron's toes had fused into three digits, and were rather dangerous looking.

"Oops," was his startled response to what had happened.

"Guess you won't be needing those from now on," Darren stated laughingly, looking at Aaron's shredded footwear.

"Guess not," Aaron replied, slightly amused as he kicked off the remains of his shoes.

"True," Nancy said, appearing unexpectedly from behind a nearby boulder."And you're not going to believe what I just found out about."

"Weren't you just up there?" Darren asked, puzzled and looking up at the top of the lighthouse.

"Yeah," she said excitedly."And that's the cool part. Watch _this_!" Turning, Nancy walked into the shadow cast by the boulder. And _vanished_.

"What the?" Aaron hissed, his golden eyes wide in amazement.

"Over here," Nancy called from behind them, emerging from the shadow of the lighthouse.

"_How are you doing that_?" Darren asked, even more confused, looking from the boulder to where Nancy now stood and back again.

"I don't really know," she answered, smiling."It's like when you fly Darren. It just happens."

"But what are you actually doing?" Aaron wanted to know.

"I guess you would call it _shadow-walking_," she said, inventing the name right then and there."I go in one shadow and sort-of pick another to come out of. See?" Nancy sank down into her own silhouette, and to Aaron's amazement, rose up out of _his_."I can go wherever there's enough shade."

"At night, that's _everywhere_," Darren commented, impressed with Nancy's new ability.

"How far do you think you can go?" Aaron asked, intrigued.

"Lets find out," Nancy grinned, fading into her own shadow again. A few tense minutes passed before she reappeared in the shadow of the lighthouse."I went all the way to Gotham City!" she exclaimed, excited and stunned at the same time."I tried to go to New York, but it didn't work. I think I can only shadow-walk to a place I've been to before," she added, thoughtfully.

"That's still nearly five hundred miles from here," Darren stated, clearly amazed. Aaron's response to this news was a very impressed look on his snake-like face and a round of applause. He was speechless.

"That's...That's _incredible_, Nancy," Aaron finally managed to say.

_Chapter Five: Construction and Confrontations_

Once Darren and Aaron had recovered from the surprise of Nancy's new power, entry to the lighthouse was easy. As Aaron had stated, there were several floors inside-the ground floor, one that was clearing a living space, one for (apparently) storage, and a room below the room at the top for the light. As Nancy had been inside already, she took the lead as they explored their new home.

The first floor, the ground floor, was basically an empty, circular room. Odd controls and spaces for controls lined part of the curved wall, and there was a massive, engine-looking block in the middle of the room. The generator, Darren guessed correctly. Quite naturally, it wasn't working, and and power supplied by the city had been turned off. The far side of the room was dominated by a staircase which followed the curving wall of the lighthouse. Beneath it was a washer and dryer, though both looked like they had seen better days.

The second floor was once the living area. It had been walled in and divided into a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. Several small windows lined the outer wall of the lighthouse on this floor. The stairs had come up into the kitchen, which still had most of the important appliances. Cabinets lined the interior wall, while the sink and a large window occupied the outer wall of the lighthouse. After seeing the other rooms, which were empty, the three soon-to-be heroes continued exploring. The staircase had ended in the kitchen, but a second set of stairs were in the living room, following the curved outer wall again.

The next floor was divided into two empty chambers separated by a hallway. At one end, the stairs led down, at the other, they continued up, again following the outer wall of the lighthouse. Darren and Nancy immediately claimed these rooms as theirs, before continuing up.

Floor four was a bit different from the others. Unique to it was the large pedestal which rose up through the ceiling to support the immensely powerful light at the top of the lighthouse. Controls were attached to the pedestal, and another set of stairs spiraled around it, leading to the glass-walled room that contained the light at the top of the building. As lighthouses are cone-shaped by design, this room was quite a bit smaller than the ones below, though it was still about fifteen feet wide. The pedestal dominated the room however, giving Nancy, Darren and Aaron good cause to have it removed.

"Once that thing's out of here, this room will make an excellent command center," Aaron stated."With a few modifications, like windows, computers, and a few other things, it'll be perfect."

"How're we gonna pay for that?" Darren asked seriously."I don't think being heroes will just make people give us whatever we want."

"Neither do I," he answered."But we won't need much if we demolish the top of this place and use its parts."

"Again, how?" Darren asked, wanting to make this work.

"Our powers, duh," Nancy replied, using one of her wings to slap him lightly.

Taking apart the roof of a lighthouse, even assisted by superpowers, wasn't easy. Darren, using his solar-powered energy beam like a cutting torch, separated the light and machinery from the building. He then melted and cut the pieces into about a dozen smaller chunks. These bits were unceremoniously tossed out the nearest window to crash onto the rocks below.

Nancy, with Aaron's help, slowly and carefully extracted, then carried downstairs the dozen or so panes of glass which had once protected the now-trashed spotlight and machinery. These would be the new windows. After much debate, they decided on having four windows in the 'command center', and marked out where each new window would be placed, using Aaron's talons to scratch and outline the exact spots.

Once everything usable had been taken from the light room, Darren came back inside to dispose of the pedestal which now supported nothing. This he accomplished by melting it into an unrecognizable metal boulder. Then he divided the boulder into several dozen roughly square parts, using his energy beam with a precision rivalling any laser. Like with the other pieces, these parts soon rained from the sky, smashing to bits on the boulders of the Point. Task almost complete, Darren Nancy and Aaron had one more thing to do: make a new roof since they had pretty much demolished the old one.

After another debate, the solution to this problem was reached. The cone-shaped roof of the lighthouse was held up by the metal framework that once contained the windows. By holding each bit of framework and heating it until the metal was soft and bendable, Darren, with Aaron's directing, folded the framework in on itself, lowering the roof into place. This was then weather-proofed by Darren's power, which melted and fused the roof to the rest of the structure. After such a sustained use of his powers, Darren had to go out and sit in the sun for a while.

Now, after Darren had come back in after his 'recharge', came the delicate and tricky part. Installing the windows. Four, five foot tall, four foot wide panes of glass. After another quick planning session, it fell upon Darren to play at being construction equipment again. Cutting the holes for the glass proved to be easy enough for him-getting the glass in place and making it stay in was the hard part. After losing three panes of glass out of the dozen they had salvaged from the light room, the windows were successfully installed. Aaron had provided the solution. By cutting a groove in the holes where the windows would be with his claws, he allowed the glass to be slid into place, where Darren then sealed it by melting and fusing the glass to the wall. Nancy had helped by holding the glass steady while they worked.

"Now what?" Darren asked, after they had finished. Building was hard work, and he was sweaty, tired, and since it was nearing two in the afternoon, hungry too. He hadn't eaten today, breakfast being forgotten when his powers had melted a toaster this morning.

"Now we try to get the power back on," Aaron answered, moments before his stomach rumbled. "_After_ we eat," he added, earning a laugh from his friends.

"My parents shouldn't be home right now," Nancy stated."I'll shadow-walk to my place and throw together some sandwiches.

"Sounds good," Darren grinned."Bring some chips too please, if you have any."

"Alright," she replied, sinking into her shadow halfway before asking,"Drinks? I got soda, juice, or milk." It was a bit unnerving to see someone sink through the floor, but Darren and Aaron figured they'd get used to it.

"Soda's fine," they answered, causing Nancy to disappear completely.

"That power of hers is kinda creepy," Aaron stated once she'd gone."But very cool too," he added, to Darren's agreement.

Nancy came back about five minutes later, emerging from the shadow cast by the curved lighthouse wall. Both boys smiled at what she brought with her-some sodas, a bag of chips, and a plate full of sandwiches. A bit of hilarity ensued as Aaron discovered that opening a soda can was harder now that he had claws instead of fingertips. His talons broke the tab off, and he had to resort to poking a hole in the can to get a drink. Darren however, accidentally set one of his sandwiches on fire when he tried to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

"Ok, how do we get the power back on?" Nancy asked, once they had finished eating.

"Simple," Darren said."We go up to the electric company responsible for the tower and, as the guardians of Vaco Bay, request that they turn our power on."

"Crazy," Nancy said, Aaron echoing her moments later."Do you actually think they'll do it? If we show up at their doors, they'll probably call the cops or the asylum on us."

"She does have a point," Aaron agreed."That is, if they even take us seriously and don't tell us that Halloween isn't for another few weeks."

"Well, what do you suppose we do?" he retorted."Go turn on the electric, gas and water ourselves?"

"I was going to suggest selling all that scrap metal we tore out of here so we can just _pay _to have power," Aaron said smartly."But hey, your plan should work too, until someone notices that the lighthouse is up and running again."

"What about that generator on the first floor?" Nancy asked."Isn't that what powered this place originally?"

"Yes," Aaron claimed, looking dumbfounded."Of course! How could I have been so stupid? That generator powered a spotlight that could be seen over a mile away. If we can get it running again, it should serve our purposes until we figure out a long-term solution. Lets go have a look at it-see if it even _can _work."

An hour and a bit of tinkering later, Aaron and Darren discovered that generators were a little too complicated for them to understand. They certainly weren't like anything Darren had seen before, and Aaron was certain that this particular unit had some major modifications added to it.

"Hate to burst your bubble Aaron, but I don't think we can get this working," Nancy stated, watching the two boys examine the machine.

"You're right Nancy," Darren said, giving up on tracing a cord that led to a panel labelled, 'Danger, High Voltage'.

"We need an expert," Aaron agreed. He'd been (unknowingly) following the same cord that Darren was looking at."I don't even know where to start or how to turn this thing on," he added reluctantly, giving the machine a kick and unintentionally scratching it with his clawed toes.

"So, now what?" Nancy inquired."We can't stay here with no power."

"We can't stay anyways," Darren cringed."We gotta go home, and tell our parents."

"Actually, if they aren't too shocked," Aaron stated."My mom and dad might be able to help us out."

"That's good news," Nancy said, though she still dreaded confronting her family about this."Should we tell 'em as a group or separately?" she asked.

"separately," Aaron and Darren said at once."Otherwise they might join forces and try to talk us out of this," Aaron added.

"True," she replied."Hopefully this won't be so bad..."

Nancy was wrong. Once she got home, her mother and father ranted, raved and cried at her for more than two hours. During that time, Nancy could barely get a word in edgewise, and twice had to hide behind her wings, ashamed, as her mother wept at her daughter's 'deformity'. Surprisingly, it was Nancy's sister who diffused the conflict once she got home from school. Jolene walked into the argument, saw Nancy, and immediately started asking a million questions, coming to Nancy's rescue and giving her the time and chance to explain herself and what she and the boys planned to do. Soon, things had calmed down and taken a slightly different course.

"Are you _sure _this is what you want to do?" her father asked her, once Nancy had finished explaining things.

"Yes," she answered, not expecting him to ask that.

"Then go," he said slowly, though Nancy could tell that those words pained him. By that time her mother had also calmed down enough to realize that, like it or not, nothing could change the situation they were in."We might not like this, but I can tell that we aren't going to change your mind."

Darren's parents, on the other hand, made a liar out of him. Darren had thought he'd be in for the yelling match of his life when he walked through the door and into his house. His father and mother had been waiting for him in the kitchen; mom sitting at the table, melted toaster in hand, his dad standing behind her. Both had stern looks on their faces, looks that demanded answers.

When no-one spoke, Darren slowly began to explain things, starting with the accident. He told of how Aaron had learned of their powers, the many nights and days of planning, deciding to be heroes...everything. Throughout this, his mother and father said nothing, until he had finished.

"We knew something was up," his father told him, voice unexpectedly soft."Not what, exactly, but we _did _know," he added, his expression guarded.

"At least we were right about that," his mother said."For a while Darren, we feared the worst-that you had fallen in with the wrong crowd, what with you being out all the time, all over town. About that, I'm glad we were _wrong_." Relief was heavy in her voice, so much so that Darren felt guilty and ashamed that he had worried his parents so much.

"I'm sorry I lied to you," he said slowly."I should have told you a long time ago."

"We know," his mother said, then smiled grimly."But the past is past. We shouldn't dwell on what we can't change-and we can't change this, can we?"she asked.

"No," Darren answered, thinking of his earlier conversation with his Aaron and Nancy. "There isn't any going back. I have these powers now, and I feel like it's my responsibility to help people, use them to do good in the world."

"We're with you on this," his father said, then tried to put some humor into the situation."Hey, maybe one day you might get to meet Superman. Make sure you get his autograph for me," he added, grinning.

Nancy's parents may have been emotional wrecks and Darren's cool with the idea, but at least they recognized their children. Aaron had no such recognition-in fact, he came very close to being shot by his father's gun. fortunately, thanks to Aaron's quick thinking and even quicker words, that outcome was avoided. After racing into his room and locking the door, Aaron rapidly began shouting private family information-stuff only his parents would know about him, until they had no choice but to believe that Aaron was, in fact, who he said he was.

Aside from that close encounter with the business end of his father's gun, the rest of Aaron's explaining went rather smoothly. Aaron told his parents everything, much like Nancy and Darren had done, though with one small difference. Hating himself, Aaron listed everything essential that he needed for their new home. He didn't like having to ask for help, especially when the help he needed happened to be money.

"There's no going back, is there?" his mother asked him, upset at everything and nothing at the same time.

"Afraid not," Aaron said, looking at his clawed hands."This is the way things are. I can show you my research, if you'd like," he added.

"That won't be necessary," his father said."We believe you. That isn't a costume you're wearing, so everything else you've said must be true as well. If you say there's no way back, then there's _no way back._"

"Forward is the direction I'm more concerned about," Aaron asked, not wanting to ask what he needed to ask.

"We'll see what we can do," Aaron's mother said.

All three of them, Nancy Darren and Aaron, were signed into the homeschooling program by the end of the week. Darren's father, upon seeing the large pile of scrap metal when he accompanied his son out to the lighthouse, agreed to haul it away and sell it. Nancy's parents contributed their garage full of tools to the teens, giving them an option other than blasting something when it wouldn't come apart.

But by far the biggest help the three received came from Aaron's parents. By throwing their financial weight around and calling in old favors, they were able to get in contact with one Bruce Wayne, who was a known supporter of superheroes. Mr. Wayne quietly agreed to help these 'Guardians of Vaco Bay.' Though his funding, Aaron's parents were able to secure the use of the lighthouse, and contributed greatly to Guardians Tower, the teens chosen name for the lighthouse. Power was reconnected, the generator updated, and all manner of equipment and technology was packed into the building.

All in all, what would have taken over a year for the teens and their parents to accomplish alone was completed in a few short months. By January, Guardians Tower stood tall, bright, and powerful out on the Point, watching over the city just as the lighthouse it once was had watched over and guided ships at sea.

A mighty fortress now, the towers front door had been enlarged and strengthened by steel plates, along with much of the outside wall. Inside on the first floor sat the generator and its controls, protected now by a concrete and steel cube, locked by password and key that only the towers inhabitants possessed. The stairs were gone, replaced with an elevator, though the washer and dryer still sat in their usual spot.

The second floor had become an odd mix of living space, training room, and dining area. What was once the living room of the lighthouse had become the training area, filled with excercise equipment, punching bags, and other such things. Expanded, the kitchen has overtaken the single bedroom on this floor, and the bathroom has been enlarged and divided into three separate rooms, one for each hero.

Once consisting of two large rooms separated by a hall, the third floor of the tower has been divided into six smaller chambers, though they are still separated by the same hallway. To the left of the elevator and farthest from it lies Darren's room, with his impressive stereo system tucked away inside. Much of his personal belongings have made the journey to the tower, but the rest of his room is fairly simple, consisting of a bed, closet and chest of drawers.

Across the hall and slightly closer to the elevator is Aaron's room. There is no bed inside, for Aaron has learned that claws and bed sheets don't mix very well. Instead there is a padded area in one corner for him to sleep on. A table runs along the far side of the room, on which sits Aaron's computer and most of his personal belongings.

Nancy's room is on the left and closest to the elevator. Like Aaron, she has modified her room to suit her uniqueness. Recessed lighting casts much of the room in shadow no matter how bright the day is, and a door and small ledge has been installed, allowing Nancy to fly whenever she wants.

Two of the other rooms lay empty, awaiting future use, but the third serves a dual purpose as both an infirmary and a laboratory. Anticipating that fighting crime could be dangerous and painful, the three teens had stocked their little medical center with most of the basic stuff one would find in a doctors office-bandages, testing equipment, medicine, a few fold-out beds and other such things. The other side of the room however, consists of things that Aaron had thought would be useful-computers, microscopes, beakers, test tubes, stuff that one would expect to find in a laboratory.

Up a set of stairs and on the fourth and final floor of the tower is the command center. Here, a semi-circle of windows lets in a view of the city and surrounding area. Advanced computer systems and uplinks to the entire city can be found here as well, along with an electronic map of the Vaco Bay on a table in the middle of the room. Any serious disturbance in the city can be pin-pointed by the towers computer systems in under a minute.

_Chapter Six: Transitions and First Missions_

"What's the news?" Darren asked, leaning over Aaron's shoulder and watching what he was working on. The three of them were in the laboratory, and barely a week had passed since they had completed the tower and brought all of its systems online.

"Progress," he answered, holding up the fabric that Darren hoped would become his superhero suit."Try torching it," he added, draping the sample over the back of a chair.

"But this time don't blast a hole in the wall," Nancy cautioned. This was the fifth such try to produce a material durable enough to withstand the power and temperature of Darren's energy beam. Try number three had given the laboratory a new window.

"Stand back," Darren stated, taking aim. Once his friends had retreated, he fired on the fabric. The material held for a moment, but then quickly disintegrated.

"Six point four seconds," Nancy timed."Better, but not quite there yet."

"At least it didn't leave much of a mess," Aaron stated, blowing the dusty remains off of the chair."Try _this_," he said, handing Darren a small square of orange-red material.

"Ok," Darren agreed, taking it."What is it?"

"Hopefully, your suit," Aaron told him."Now blast it."

Somewhat reluctantly, Darren obeyed as Aaron aimed a thermal camera (loaned to them by the Vaco Bay police department) at the material held in his hand. Quickly, the temperature spiked, rocketing past the one thousand degree mark. Impressed and surprised, Darren poured more heat onto the material. On the camera, the temperature of Darren's hand climbed, glowing white-hot on the screen. Two thousand degrees was attained, then three, and still the fabric held.

"Hotter?" Darren asked, though he could feel that he was beginning to approach his limits.

"Hotter," Aaron said, as he and Nancy slipped on a pair of goggles to block out the near blinding glow of Darren's hand.

"Alright!" Darren exclaimed, forcing more energy into his hand and already envisioning his suit.

Within thirty seconds, the extreme heat pouring from Darren's hand had maxed out the thermal camera. It wasn't designed to measure such high temperatures, but the last reading it projected before shutting off was an incredible, awe-inspiring, five thousand degrees. Looking at Darren's hand was like trying to look at the sun, it was so bright. And still, the material endured, though by now it was starting to glow itself.

"Back it down Darren," Aaron said, having seen enough.

"But I can go hotter," Darren protested, though he obeyed his friend and stopped pouring heat into the fabric.

"I think we have your suit," Nancy said, impressed by both the durability of the material, and Darren's powers.

Cooling fast in Darren's hand but still glowing faintly, the little square that had resisted temperatures exceeding five thousand degrees seemed perfectly intact. Its orange-red color was unchanged, and the material itself was just as flexible and strong as it was before Darren had tried to fry it.

"Cool," Darren said, handing the square back to Aaron."So what is this stuff?"

"It's a polymer," his friend replied."Carefully modified and almost indestructible."

"You mean, this is some sort of _plastic_?" Darren asked, disbelief on his face.

"It is," Aaron answered."NASA has been working on this and planning to use it as a protective skin on their rockets. However, the basic components are relatively easy to find-combining them is the hard part. _That _requires an insanely powerful electrical field to bond the bits together."

"And?" Nancy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"And _we _can't generate that kind of power," Aaron stated."Unless Darren drains himself again."

"Worth it," Darren said, wincing a little. Draining himself, like back when he'd first gotten his powers, was an experience he'd rather forget about, but to have an almost indestructible suit was well worth the discomfort.

"But then you'd be defenseless for a few hours or even days," Aaron told him, concerned for his friend.

"Worth it," Darren repeated."And its not just for me Aaron. Think about it-if I can give off enough power, we can all have this super-strong stuff for suits, enough for a couple pairs at least." It was true-in all the chaos of getting the tower operational and moving in, none of the teens had made themselves a crime fighting outfit yet. There hadn't been any major crimes yet either, but with the towers systems up and running now, it was only a matter of time before the new heroes saw action.

"You have a point," Aaron admitted."But what if the city needs us while you're out of power?"

"Not very likely," Nancy grumbled, ruffling her wings in annoyance."I'm not complaining, but Vaco Bay has been very dull lately. We aren't needed except for emergencies."

"Which could happen at any time," Aaron pointed out."Crime, accidents, natural disasters, not to mention Mimic and any_thing_ like him, are just waiting to try and wreck our city." _That _monstrosity was still on the loose, though there hadn't been any more disappearances. The three teens had a feeling that he would be back though, and had informed the Vaco Bay police about him and his capabilities so they wouldn't be caught off guard.

"All the more reason to do this now, and be ready," Darren stated, settling the matter.

It took three days to manufacture, design and piece together their suits. As Darren was weakened by draining himself, and Aaron's claws tended to get in the way, the actual process of putting the suits together fell squarely on Nancy's shoulders. She didn't mind though-Aaron had gone over what the material was capable of withstanding and Nancy was highly impressed with it.

It wasn't exactly indestructible-pointy objects like sewing needles could pierce it, for example-but the material, which had an unpronouncible twenty letter name, was very good at protecting things from heat, electrical discharges, water damage, and was even semi-bullet proof, capable of stopping smaller caliber projectiles. Darren had given off enough power that they had enough material to create nine suits, three per hero.

Darren's suit was the first to be assembled, and included coal-black boots, pants that were colored and patterned to look like molten lava, and a short-sleeved shirt that matched. All were close to form-fitting, ensuring that the uniform wouldn't get caught on anything, or allow bad guys to grab a hold of him easily. Black, fingerless gloves completed the outfit, allowing Darren some protection for his hands while still letting him throw his energy bolts around.

Compared to Darren's, Nancy's suit was rather simple in design. Textured to resemble leather, it was composed of a short-sleeved top with openings for her wings, pants that were plain and simple, shoes, and gloves that encased most of her lower arms. All were colored a deep, midnight black. Nancy had gone for a dark and dangerous look. The only bit of color other than black was her belt, which was a dark purple.

For lack of a better idea, Aaron's outfit was modeled after his own skin. Bronze scales, slightly darker and off-color from the real thing, completely covered the suit, though there wasn't much of it to begin with. The shirt was sleeveless and instead of pants, knee length shorts completed the outfit, modified of course, to allow Aaron's tail its full range of movement without displaying his posterior to the world. Due to his talons, Aaron had decided against attempting to create shoes for himself. Besides, since his transformation, he had found that his feet were quite tough and had quickly gotten used to running around barefoot.

The alarm sounded less than four hours after they had finished, almost as if the city had waited for them to complete their suits. Moments after they had entered the command center, the computer systems had targeted the emergency. A four-story apartment building was on fire. Dozens of people were trapped on the roof and inside, and it was clear that the fire department wouldn't get there in time to save all of them.

"Nancy, take us there," Aaron stated, to her shock.

"Shadow-walk?" she cried."I, I don't know if I can even do it while I'm holding onto a person!" It was true-Nancy had only shadow-walked carrying small objects before.

"Nancy, you have to try," Darren said, pointing at the burning building on the computer screen and wondering how on earth his powers could possibly help in this situation.

"I'll try," she said, detirmined as Darren and Aaron took hold of her hands.

Taking a deep breath, Nancy drew upon her powers and sank into her shadow on the floor, concentrating on pulling her friends with her. Once inside, she opened herself to the darkness, searching for a shadow close to their destination as Aaron and Darren gripped her hands tightly. Unlike the girl, whose power guided her, they had _nothing_. Light, sound, everything seemed swallowed up in the infinite blackness around them. Total sensory deprivation, except for the feeling of Nancy's hands gripping their own. It was terrifying to the boys, and though the shadow-walk only lasted a few brief seconds, for them it felt like an eternity.

The three teens emerged from the shadow of a truck parked half a block away from the flaming building. Paralyzed by the terror they had just went through, Aaron and Darren watched as Nancy took to the air and sped toward the fire, oblivious to their condition.

"Come on, lets go!" Aaron said to Darren, snapping him out of his fear induced paralysis. Feeling the ground beneath his talons again had been what brought Aaron out of it.

Wordlessly, the two young heroes raced toward the building, intent on saving lives, Darren shooting skywards to help Nancy, who was getting people off the roof. Much of the first, second and fourth floor windows were engulfed in flames, and smoke was starting to roil out of ones on the third floor. A group of horrified onlookers had gathered across the street, watching helplessly as the building burned.

"There's people trapped on the third floor!" a man cried, pointing up at them as they screamed for help.

"Do something, reptile or whatever you are!" another person shouted at Aaron.

"I'm on it!" Aaron snarled, lashing his tail.

Trusting that Darren and Nancy would get the people off the roof, Aaron set about rescuing the poor souls trapped on the third floor. Seeing his taloned hands and feet as if for the first time, Aaron leaped, and sank those sharp claws into the brick wall of the building. determined, he began to climb quickly, ignoring the hot sparks and burning cinders that rained upon his bare arms and head.

Reaching one of the third floor windows occupied by a middle-aged woman, he hopped inside, got her to get on his back, and exited the window in under a minute. Encouraged by shouts from below, Aaron clawed his way over to a drainage pipe and slid down, depositing the woman into the waiting hands of the onlookers.

Scaling the wall again, Aaron repeated his rescues seven more times, once carrying a mother and her twin sons to the safety of the crowd below. Exhausted and in pain from the minor burns covering his arms, head and tail, Aaron was about to climb the wall again when he was stopped by the man who had told him to 'do something.'

"That's everyone," he told him, clapping him on the shoulder."Now lets get those burns of yours checked out. The fire department just got here, and there's some cops and an ambulance here, too."

"No, no, I'm ok," Aaron stated, waving the person off and looking for Darren and Nancy."Where are my friends?" he asked the guy.

"Over there with the cops," the man pointed."Who are you people?"

"The Guardians of Vaco Bay," he replied, absent-mindedly creating a name for themselves."I'm-" he began to say Aaron, but stopped mid-sentance. Taking his cue from what the man had called him, he made a name for himself."I'm Reptile."

By the time 'Reptile' had located his friends about twenty minutes later, fire crews had pretty much gotten the fire contained and were letting it burn itself out-too much of the building had been consumed by the blaze for them to try to save it. Sunset had come and gone while Nancy and Darren talked with the paramedics, both thanking them and being thanked by them for their quick response. Incredibly, no-one was seriously injured by the fire, though the building itself was lost.

"There's another one," one of the fire-fighters said, pointing at Aaron."He pulled eleven people out of the third floor."

And so began the questions. Where did they come from? Who were they? Why how what when...by the time the questions were done, the three heroes had been treated for their minor burns and the paramedics and everyone else present had learned that their city had gotten its very first superhero team-the Guardians of Vaco Bay.

"You ok?" Darren asked Aaron, once the questions were done and they were headed home.

"Yeah," he yawned, revealing his razor-sharp teeth before shutting his jaws with a snap."What was that name they kept calling you?"

"Flamestrike," he answered, holding his hand up and making it glow."Turns out I can draw power from fire too, not just the sun-I pulled the flames away from the people on the roof while Nancy got them down. By the way, her hero name-"

"-Is Mirage," she stated, finishing Darren's sentance."It wasn't my choice for a name, but that's what everyone kept saying when they told the paramedics how I got them down. 'We just vanished off the roof like a mirage and then I was on the ground,'" she said, quoting one of the people she'd saved."What name did you get Aaron? Dragonman? Lizardboy?"

"Those sound cool, but no," he shrugged."I'm 'Reptile'. It's a decent name."

"Descriptive too," Flamestrike laughed.

"Guess so," Reptile said, smiling."But so is Flamestrike."

"Better that than 'Mirage,'" Nancy complained."I mean, what kind of name is that for a superhero?"

"I think it suits you," Reptile told her."It describes your power-the ability to disappear and re-appear wherever you want."

"Oh," she replied, that thought having not occurred to her."So, should I disappear and take us home? It beats walking," she asked.

"No!" Flamestrike cried, blasting his power and rocketing to the top of a nearby phone pole. Reptile had used the flash of light as a distraction and hidden somewhere.

"What'd I say," Mirage smirked, amused at the sight of her friend up on top of the pole like a cat stuck in a tree.

"Lets just say we don't care for your way of transportation and leave it at that," Reptile claimed, emerging from behind a car as Flamestrike dropped back to the ground.

"Ok," Mirage agreed, knowing full well that she'd scared the living daylights out of her friends earlier today-them having a death-grip on her hands while she shadow-walked was proof enough of that."But can we at least fly? Walking takes forever."

They were airborne before Reptile could object, Mirage taking the lead while Flamestrike grabbed him and flew at a slower pace, in doing so revealing that he had learned how to fly and hold something at the same time. When he had first started flying, Darren/Flamestrike couldn't do that.

"I do wish you'd give me a minutes warning before you up and haul me into the sky," Reptile complained, once they were back inside the tower, though he did appreciate that it hadn't taken them more than ten minutes to get home.

"Would you rather go my way?" Mirage teased, vanishing into her shadow and appearing out of his, frightening him.

Cornered between Mirage and a kitchen countertop, all Reptile could do was lean away from her and say,"No, ma'am," in a scared tone of voice.

"Cut it out, you two," Flamestrike laughed, rummaging around in the refrigerator. "Pizza sound good?" he asked, stomach growling.

"Sure," Mirage said, backing off.

"Is it pepperoni?" Reptile asked, all hostility cast aside by the presence of food.

"Yep," he replied, opening up the box and putting the pizza in the oven."It'll be done in about twenty minutes, so lets use that time to get cleaned up-I smell like an ashtray."

"Did you at least wash your hands before touching our food?" Mirage asked, making a face at him. Flamestrike replied by making a face at her, then showing her his clean and gloveless hands.

By the time the food was done cooking, the three Guardians had washed up, changed into their spare suits, and put the dirtied ones into the washing machine. Once served, the pizza put a stop to all conversation as the trio dug in. Dinner was followed by an hour-long discussion about their first real bit of heroism, going over what they did right, what could've been done better, and planning for future events of a similar nature.

Over the next few months, the three Guardians rapidly improved on their hero work, learning to work more as a team, compensating for each other's weaknesses, and using their strengths to the fullest extent. Together, the Guardians caught criminals, saved lives, and brought a new level of peace and safety to Vaco Bay.

_Chapter Seven: Mayhem and Monsters_

That lifestyle went on for quite a while. Something bad happened, the Guardians stopped it. Recognized by nearly everyone in Vaco Bay as real heroes, Flamestrike Mirage, and Reptile were welcomed wherever they went. And, once they realized this, the three Guardians went _everywhere_.

One sunny afternoon in May changed all that.

It began with a bank robbery, oddly enough. The Guardians had failed to catch the guy at the bank, and a chase ensued. At stake: the lives of countless innocent bystanders and four million dollars in cold, hard cash. The risks: the criminal was armed, dangerous and driving the armored car that had transported the money. How he planned to escape and hide such a recognizable vehicle, no-one knew, but he had to be stopped.

"Ok, how do we stop this thing without me blowing it up?" Flamestrike asked. He, carrying Reptile, and Mirage flying alongside, were above and behind the armored car-a safe position, since they had been shot at when they'd tried getting ahead of the vehicle.

"I don't know," Mirage replied, flapping her wings violently in order to stay with the fleeing criminal, who was driving as fast as he could, the armored car racing along and doing near seventy miles an hour."But whatever we do, we gotta do it fast! I can't hold this speed much longer!"

"Land me on the roof!" Reptile suggested, trying not to stare at the ground too much."I'll rip my way inside and take care of the bad guy."

"Too risky," Flamestrike stated, veering up and over some power lines."You'll get shot, or the car could crash!"

"We can't let him get away," Reptile cried, starting to feel air sick as his friend dodged more power lines.

"I got it!" he cried suddenly, spying a way to stop the vehicle. Ahead of them, a series of tall buildings cast their shade over the entire street."Mirage, shadow-walk!"

Mirage, seeing what Flamestrike had in mind, quickly swooped over to him, grabbed Reptile, then dived, pulling all three of them into a shadow-filled alleyway, where they vanished.

Appearing in the shade a block in front of the armored car, Flamestrike, hands freed now that Mirage had Reptile, took aim and melted the vehicles front tires. Skidding to a stop within the shadows of the tall buildings, the armored car and its occupant vanished into thin air at Mirage's touch, reappearing seven blocks away, inside the police impound lot-which was a small parking garage located right down the street from the police station.

Dropping Reptile to the ground, Mirage vanished back to where they had been to fetch Flamestrike. surprised and thinking he was alone, the robber hopped out of the armored car, gun in hand, the traditional 'I'm a bad guy', black ski mask covering his face. Lurking out of sight as the man slowly realized where he was, Reptile planned his next move. While it was true that his snake-skin patterned outfit _could_ stop a bullet, it didn't cover every part of his body. Therefore, if the hero got shot in the arm or leg, it would really ruin his day, and needless to say, a shot to the head would kill him.

So, alone and with no back-up, for Mirage and Flamestrike knew better than to appear right in front of an armed man, Reptile set out to disarm and detain said gunman. Or, at least, keep him occupied until his friends told the police where to find their robber and the stolen money. It'd take five, ten minutes for that information to be relayed and for back-up to arrive. A long time to be alone with a man holding a gun.

"I know you're here!" the criminal declared, his voice oddly familiar as Reptile crept around, using the other cars in the impound lot to hide himself."Show yourself!"

And be shot? Reptile thought sarcastically, letting a hiss slip past his clenched teeth. I don't think so. Situations like this made the teenage hero nervous, though he wouldn't be surprised if, at some far date in the future, he looked back at this day and wondered why he was so tense. Behind the criminal now and out of sight due to a large green truck with a busted window and bullet-holes on its hood, Reptile planned his next move.

"Come out and face me, hero," the man ordered, pointing his gun around, ready to fire at anything that moved."Or are the famous 'Guardians,' a bunch of chickens?"

Not falling for the 'get him angry' tactic, Reptile nevertheless chose that moment to strike. Vaulting over the truck with a roar, Reptile charged, dodging a shot and tackling the gunman to the ground like a football player. Quickly disarming the man, Reptile was feeling rather proud of himself when he felt something jab him through his suit.

"Got you," the criminal whispered, as the teenage hero looked down in shock at the needle protruding from his chest.

For Reptile, the world went dark after that. The man, laughing quietly at the unconscious hero, calmly retrieved his gun, checked it for damage, then took as much cash as he could carry from the armored car and fled. At any time, the criminal could've easily killed the Guardian, but he didn't. Instead, he left that job to the press, local news, and the city itself.

By the following afternoon, what the robber had predicted had come true. The news, the papers, even the local radio station sent the message loud and clear: The Guardians had _failed_. Yes, they had recovered almost two-thirds of the money, but the criminal had escaped to cause crime another day. One paper went so far as to say that the Guardians weren't necessary, despite the fact that they had saved more than fifty lives and dropped crime by more than sixty percent in less than a year.

"Is Reptile ok?" Flamestrike asked, upon hearing the door open. He and Mirage were in the waiting room at the hospital that their friend had been taken to when he'd been found, pumped full of something and unconscious in the middle of the impound lot.

"In a sense," the doctor replied. Tall, pale, and with a bald spot on the top of his head, he was the stereo-typical image of his profession. His name tag read, Kerner, Walter J. M.D.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Mirage demanded, her dark eyes flashing beneath the bright hospital lights. She made a scary sight when she was angry, and the young heroine was highly upset at the moment. They'd been here all night, waiting anxiously for news about Reptile's condition.

"It means that I don't really know how to treat heroes," Dr. Kerner said, seemingly unafraid of Mirage's anger."I've given him an antidote for the poison, but, so far, he hasn't shown any signs of improvement."

"Is he awake?" Flamestrike asked, worried.

"No," Dr. Kerner said flatly."But that isn't unusual, considering the venom he was injected with."

"Venom? I thought you said he'd been poisoned," Mirage said, confused.

"He was," the doctor stated."That needle we found jabbed into Reptile contained a concentrated amount of a neurotoxin commonly found in the venom of a coral snake."

"Neurotoxin?" Flamestrike asked, lost by the word.

"A compound of organic chemicals that causes paralysis," Dr. Kerner explained. "In most cases, it's temporary."

Over the next three days, Reptile quickly recovered from the venom which he'd been paralyzed with. Mirage and Flamestrike nearly abandoned Guardians Tower in order to watch over him. Because of this, it made sense that none of the teen heroes noticed the growing unrest and hostility in Vaco Bay. Crime exploded in the Guardians absence, so much so that the police, who normally handled the minor problems of the city, were completely overwhelmed.

By the time Reptile was cleared to leave the hospital that evening, it seemed as if the entire city had gone mad. For the first time, riots were occurring in the streets, and gunshots could be heard every twenty of so minutes. The very same hospital where the Guardians had stayed started receiving patients at a prodigious rate, everything from accidents to victims of violence.

"What do we do?" Mirage asked fearfully, watching as another ambulance pulled in, sirens blaring. They were just outside the hospital, and had finally noticed the insanity around them."The whole city's gone crazy!"

"Split up," Flamestrike decided quickly."Patrol the city. Help who you can when you can, but don't stop for too long-other people will need us. We don't stop until Vaco Bay is back to normal, got it!?"

"Got it!" Mirage and Reptile said at the same instant.

"Then lets go Guardians!" Flamestrike cried, taking to the air.

Mirage took to the skies at that call to arms, and Reptile answered it with a mighty roar as he raced his airborne companions into the city. Splitting up, the three Guardians appeared to be fighting a lost cause-Vaco Bay was destroying itself. Everywhere the heroes looked, there seemed to be chaos.

Mirage was the first Guardian to see action. Menaced by a gang of young men and women who had armed themselves with all manner of makeshift weapons, a girl and her mother cried out for help. Landing and quickly running off the hooligans, the young heroine hurried to check on their intended victims.

"Run home," she advised them, after seeing that they were alright."Lock all your doors and windows, and stay put." Grateful, the mother and daughter took off, as Mirage set out to help more of the frightened innocents of Vaco Bay.

Flamestrike, having gotten deeper into the city after breaking up a group of people smashing store windows, spotted serious trouble outside a bank. Three security guards and two cops were in a firefight with a group of men sniping at them from a building on the other side of the street. The police cruisers were already riddled with bullet holes, and one of the cops had been hit in the leg. They were cut off from the bank and using the cars for cover.

"What's the situation?!" Flamestrike demanded, landing quick and ducking down even quicker.

"Attempt at bank robbery," the injured cop said, as a bullet _pinged!_ off the hood of the cruiser."When we didn't let 'em in, they retreated to that store across the street and opened up on us."

"They're hoping we either run out of bullets or get shot up enough that we have to give up the bank," one of the guards stated."These boys mean business."

"There a back way into that building?" Flamestrike asked, throwing a bolt of energy at their attackers.

"Yeah, there should be," the other cop said."Be careful kid," he added, before the teenage hero could leave.

"Always am," he replied, throwing another bolt then shooting skywards as fast as he could, getting out of the criminals line of fire.

Circling around the block, Flamestrike easily found the rear entrance to the store and melted the lock, gaining access. Sneaking up on the gunmen, who were still focused on the cops, the hero took a head count and came up with seven. Seven armed men against one solar-powered Guardian. Deciding that a show of force would put these thugs in their place, Flamestrike turned his power up all the way and blasted a hole the size of a car door through the buildings brick wall...right beside the criminals.

"_Drop your weapons or the next things I blast will be you!" _he yelled, both hands glowing and his eyes shining white as the stunned criminals turned to face him.

"I surrender," one of them cried, throwing down his gun, the rest hastily following his example.

"The Guardians are _back_," Flamestrike said, as the men put their hands on their heads."Now, who put you up to this?" he demanded, knowing that bank robberies were almost always planned out in advance.

"He's not here!" the one who surrendered first cried, after looking around. It was true-one of the seven men had managed to slip away, probably when Flamestrike had blasted the wall to get their attention.

"Who?" the hero demanded."Give me a _name_."

"He called himself Mimic," one of the others said, as one of the bank security guards and the uninjured cop came in and started handcuffing the criminals."He's the one that planned all of this."

"Tell me more," he said, somehow not surprised at this turn of events as he let his powers dissipate, hands and eyes no longer glowing.

"Mimic said that at a certain time, the Guardians wouldn't be here," the man said. "He planned everything, with every thief and con-man in the city."

"So, that's the cause," Flamestrike muttered to himself, as the last man was handcuffed.

"We got things here," the police officer said to him."Go-if what these sleazy crooks told you is true, other people are gonna be needing your help."

"Your buddy out there?" he asked, referring to the injured cop.

"He'll be alright-I radioed in and the station said paramedics are on their way," he replied.

Meanwhile, across the city, near the site of the accident that created the Guardians, Reptile stood, having tracked down a strange being that had been casually pulling down power lines. Easily twelve feet tall, the creature was humanoid in form, but aside from that, the similarities ended. Slime green and glowing faintly, it had blood-red eyes, arms that were as long as it was tall, and short, stumpy legs. Ignoring Reptile, it reached up with its three-fingered hand and snapped another power line, which it then placed in its mouth.

Reptile winced, expecting the creature to be electrocuted and killed by the line. Instead of that fate, however, the being glowed brightly in the dim evening light and grew about three feet taller. It was _feeding _on the energy, Reptile realized, as the monster sucked on the line like it was a straw, electricity sparking around its mouth.

"Stop!" he commanded, feeling slightly foolish for trying to reason with the beast.

Therefore Reptile was shocked when the thing did indeed stop what it was doing. Dropping the power cable, it lumbered out into the street, shoving a parked car out of its way like it was a toy. The beast walked like an ape, using all four of its limbs to move, though its posture was far more upright due to the length of its arms. Stopping in the middle of the road, the thing levelled an intense stare at Reptile, its blood-red eyes seeming to burn with a barely contained rage.

Ok, I have its attention, now what? Reptile asked himself as the creature continued to glare at him. It was too big for the hero to fight alone, but his friends were surely just as busy as he was, trying to save the city.

"You...Guar..dian," the beast growled, shocking Reptile, who had believed that this creature was a mutated animal of some kind, instead of an intelligent being."I...name Livewire...Mimic say, kill Guar...dian."

That was all the warning that Reptile got before the thing-Livewire-charged at him with surprising speed for its size, scattering cars and anything else in its path like fallen leaves. Dodging to one side at the last possible moment, Reptile watched as a glowing fist the size of a traffic light smashed into the road where he'd been standing, punching a hole three feet wide all the way through to the sewer system below.

Still not quite able to believe that that thing, that monster, had actually spoken to him, Reptile rose to his feet and ran. Livewire was far too strong for the young hero to fight alone-a single punch could literally take Reptile's head off. Giving chase, the mad, electricity-absorbing beast quickly gained ground on the Guardian, swiping at him with its claws and screeching like a demon each time it missed.

As he ran, Reptile reached and grabbed the communicator on his belt to call for help. Essentially a high-tech, highly durable walkie-talkie the size of a cell phone, each Guardian had one, for emergency situations. And having a large, glowing mutant chasing you and wanting to kill you certainly counted as an emergency.

"Flamestrike, Mirage-I need help!" Reptile panted, barely dodging what could've easily been a lethal blow from Livewire.

"Where are you?!" Mirage demanded, hearing the desperation in his voice.

"Downtown," he answered, springing over a truck that had been abandoned in the middle of the road."Headed south. Hurry!"

"On our way," she replied, as Livewire smashed aside the truck that Reptile had just leapt over.

"Die!"An enraged Livewire roared suddenly, causing Reptile to duck, escaping another vicious claw swipe from the creature.

"Not today," he said to himself, spying a way to get out of the creature's reach.

Doubling back, Reptile caused the beast to trip over its own feet as it tried to turn and follow him. Not wasting any time to see if Livewire had actually fallen down, Reptile headed for a fire escape ladder on a nearby office building. Leaping, he caught the lowest rung and frantically began to climb.

Claws the size of knives slashed at the ladder inches from Reptile's feet as Livewire tried to reach its target. Unable to grab the fleeing Guardian, the beast gripped the rungs and attempted to climb up after him. The entire fire escape structure shuddered as Livewire tried to scale it. And failed, for the rungs snapped beneath Livewire's weight, sending the mutant crashing back to the sidewalk below.

Safe, for the moment, Reptile nevertheless continued to climb, not stopping 'til he reached the roof. After all, the beast might just be strong enough to pull the whole ladder down if it thought that would kill its target. Staring up at him like a dog that had just treed a cat, Livewire snarled, revealing jagged teeth the size and shape of broken cinderblocks.

"You not stay up forever!" the beast roared, clenching its fists and standing upright. Without much warning, Livewire struck the building, pounding both fists against the brick wall. All three floors of the building shook, and many of the windows shattered.

Again Livewire struck the building, and more glass rained to the sidewalk, along with chunks of the wall itself. The beast roared, then struck again, a hammerblow that rocked the entire building and rumbled like thunder. Parts of the roof began to buckle and cave-in as the enraged monster battered the building with its fists again and again and again, each blow seeming to be stronger than the last. With a shock, the hero realized that the beast intended to tear the whole building down to get to him.

desperate to survive, Reptile made a flying leap as the building collapsed. Flailing wildly and aiming for the building across from the one he'd climbed, Reptile barely managed to snag the edge of the rooftop. Pulling himself up, he looked toward the rubble below. Silence reigned for several minutes as the Guardian searched for any sign of the beast, though it was soon apparent that Livewire had been buried in the collapse.

"_What on earth did you do_!?" Mirage demanded, shattering the silence and scaring Reptile so badly that he almost fell of the edge of the roof as she and Flamestrike flew into view.

"I...I didn't do anything," Reptile stuttered, as she landed next to him, sending dust into the air with her wings."It was a monster."

"Well, where is it now?" Flamestrike asked, circling and surveying the rubble from the air, hands glowing brightly to aid him. Evening was quickly becoming night, and most of the city lights hadn't come on yet.

"Buried-" Reptile began, but a roar of pure rage drowned out whatever else he was about to say.

Below, in the devastation that was once a building, a section of wall moved, then was thrown upwards with tremendous force, revealing the monster it had hidden. Oozing a foul-looking yellow fluid from various wounds that appeared to be minor, the beast known as Livewire emerged from the wreckage, clearly furious and looking for a fight.

"Nevermind," Flamestrike stated, landing next to his friends."Lets get it!"

"We can't kill it," Reptile warned the other two Guardians."It's intellegent-I believe it was human once."

"That's cute," Mirage stated, being sarcastic."Any suggestions?" she asked, looking at her friends.

"Tire it out," Flamestrike proclaimed, as Livewire finally spotted them and headed their way.

So, lacking any better ideas, the three Guardians set out to tire the beast into submission. Flamestrike didn't dare trying to blast it-Reptile had stopped him by saying that Livewire seemed to draw power from energy sources. Instead, he and Mirage made it chase them, flying just out of reach and enraging the beast even more. The task of actually fighting the mutant fell to Reptile however, who kicked and punched at Livewire every time his fellow heroes distracted it. Flamestrike's plan was a sound idea-except for one thing: it wasn't working. No matter how hard they tried, Livewire just wouldn't tire.

Tiring herself, Mirage dived at the mutant again, and that was when she saw it. Driven back before she could get a better look, Mirage let Reptile have another round with the beast while she spoke with Flamestrike.

"I need a distraction," she told him quickly."There's something strange on the creature's back-keep it occupied while I take a closer look."

"Got it!" he exclaimed, launching his energy bolts at the beast but being careful and not actually hitting it. Reptile fell back as his friend blinded Livewire with the light show, while Mirage flew in close.

"There it is," she whispered to herself, hovering above and behind the mutant.

Up on the creature's neck, at the base of its skull and way out of reach, was a small metallic object. Seemingly glued or lodged into Livewire's skin, it was almost certainly a transmitter. Someone was controlling the monster, forcing it to fight.

"Reptile, keep it busy!" she commanded, while gesturing for Flamestrike.

"Will do!" he growled, lunging at Livewire then dodging away, his claws leaving scratchmarks on its rough hide but not drawing the yellow ooze that seemed to be the mutants blood.

"What is it?" Flamestrike asked, landing beside Mirage on a rooftop, completely exhausted.

"On its neck," she said, pointing."There's a transmitter. Someone is controlling the monster."

"Destroy it and we stop the beast," Flamestrike stated, seeing what Mirage meant. "I'll try. You stay here and rest a minute, ok?"

"Sure," she readily agreed, though she was ready to jump back into the action at a moments notice."Now go."

"I hope this works," he said, crossing his fingers as he shot skywards.

Signalling reptile and motioning for him to back off, Flamestrike put on another light show to cover his friends retreat before soaring up and out of sight of the monster. Confused by the abrupt disappearance of its enemies, Livewire turned a full circle, its blood-red eyes searching fr the Guardians.

"Where...go?" Livewire growled angrily, as Flamestrike hovered above and behind it."Where Guar...dians go?"

Taking aim at the small transmitter, Flamestrike silently moved as close as he dared to ensure that he made the shot. Summoning up his power, he let fly an energy bolt hot enough and strong enough to melt even the most durable of materials.

The transmitter exploded. Shrieking in pain, Livewire grabbed at the back of its neck, its claws dislodging the ruined device from its skin. Then it looked up and watched as the hero landed in front of it, beside Reptile. There was gratitude in the mutants eyes as Mirage glided down to her friends. Unexpectedly, Livewire began to shrink, slowly revealing who it had once been.

"_Jolene?!_" Mirage cried, so shocked at the sight of her sister that she almost crashed into her friends.

_End of Part One: Sentinels_

_The Saga will continue in Rise of the Heroes Part Two: Guardians_


End file.
